Bag Trends (Page 3)

It has barely started to cool off around here (in fact, yesterday was the first day since April where I went outside and didn’t immediately want to stab Mother Nature right in the face), but fashion works on a six-months-early schedule and pre-orders for Resort and Spring 2011 accessories have begun to pop up as the last wave of fall’s new garments heads toward retail.

One of the first trends to become apparent is the importance of color in spring’s dressing, and chartreuse sits firmly among the most notable of those colors to show itself in the season’s handbags. Designers as varied and powerful as Burberry, Bottega Veneta and Prada saw fit so include chartreuse in some of their first 2011 offerings, so rest assured that this is no flash in the pan. Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, but three times is a trend.

I was first going to label this a fall trend, but truth be told the bucket bag has been sought after for a couple seasons now. For fall the Bucket Bag trend does not die down and the best place to satiate your bucket bag wants and needs is ShopBop.

The bucket bag combines utility with a casual chic hands-free vibe. The shoulder strap is long and the body of the bag is more spacious than it appears. One of our favorite bucket bags is the Alexander Wang Diego, which of course makes ShopBop’s list.

Others that made ShopBop’s bucket list include:

• Alexader Wang Diego | $825
• Marc by Marc Jacobs Q-49 Lil Mia Drawstring Bag | $378
• Cleobella Nevaeh Drawstring Bag | $485
• Jenny Bird Ruched Bucket Bag | $595
• CC SKYE The Nika Pouchette | $220

At this point, if you don’t like leopard print, I feel kind of bad for you. It seems as though every brand under the sun, from high-end to low-end and everything in between, has released some sort of leopard bag for fall. The trend is inescapable, which is great if you’re like me and you already had a pair of glittery silver and black leopard leggings left over from last year. Yeah, I said it.

If I had an extra four grand laying around, this Chanel Strass and Tweed Leopard Classic Flap would be the perfect compliment to my admittedly tacky-but-fun leggings. Or to a black dress of any sort. Or any outfit, really.

Fall is all about fur and one of the other fall trends is lace. Of course Valentino released countless lace items, from shoes to clothing to bags. Seeing as how Valentino has perfected the art of feminine designs, it is only fitting for Valentino to tackle lace. As far as this bag goes however, it just isn’t quite cutting it for me.

The Valentino Day Lace Medium Duffle features a familiar shape (Louis Vuitton Speedy anyone?) with a black floral vine lace over.

If you’ll think back with me to the mid-2000s, to a time when Chloé was releasing Paddingtons with giant bedazzled locks and people were snapping them up left and right, it might seem odd that Chloé Fall 2010 is so…minimalist. Spare, even. But in the past five years, as economic and social conditions have changed across the globe, so have tastes. Many critics are hailing this collection and those like it as the antidote to “It Bag” fatigue.

But if these bags become widely popular, are they not still It Bags, just repackaged to fit current trends? That’s probably a question that fashion marketing pros hope you won’t ask, but either way, a return to classic shapes and colors will likely be welcomed by many. Me? I’m a little bored. We have bigger photos after the jump – let us know what you think.

If you think that drawstring bags are too trendy and youth-focused to be relevant to your day-to-day style, the Donna Karan Metro Bags is here to prove you wrong. It’s current and stylish without being too obviously trend-driven, which is the perfect combination for an everyday bag.

When we talked about the Louis Vuitton and Lanvin striped mother of pearl clutches last week, I still partly believed that the similarities of the two evening bags were a coincidence – after all, two bags does not a trend make. Three bags do, however, and that’s exactly what this Judith Leiber Resort 2011 is: a sign of a burgeoning trend.

The method of inlaying more closely resembles the Louis Vuitton, as does the diagonal inlay, while the color choice is more similar to the Lanvin. The major difference is that the bag is framed with gold, which unfortunately gives me flashbacks to the 80s – as a result, this clutch is my least favorite of the three.