March 2011 - Page 5

The Balenciaga City goes Military Green

Mar 11, 2011 by Megs Mahoney Dusil

You all know about my seemingly never-ending quest to find the perfect Balenciaga bag right? If you follow us on Twitter (do that now), you will know that the hunt is over. In fact, rather than it being me that finally found the one, it was Vlad who surprised me with the bag. He took away the constant worry and stress over this BBag hunt that I have been actively taking part in and simply got the job done. Matter of fact, I could not have picked a better combination if I tried. My bag is a color that I spoke of highly from Balenciaga in a hardware finish that I never considered: rose gold.

Let me tell you something, the Rose Gold Hardware on Balenciaga Bags is the perfect touch of glam. The post all about my new bag will come next week, but for now I have another option that my eyes are currently stuck on, the Balenciaga Giant City in Military Green with Rose Gold Hardware.

Fashion Week Handbags: Stella McCartney Fall 2011

Mar 11, 2011 by Amanda Mull

Finally, someone saw fit to design a box clutch that will actually fit your keys, your phone and your wallet, all at the same time. That shouldn’t be revolutionary, but anyone who’s ever tried to stuff all of her necessities into a prissy little evening bag knows that sometimes it’s easy to understand why women used to stash things in their bras.

The Stella McCartney Fall 2011 runway show only included a couple of bags, but those that it did made me not miss leather or animal products one bit. The sharp-edged (literally) acrylic handbags looked like mod vanity cases, and they would provide a perfect counterpoint for a textured, glitzy cocktail dress, no strategic packing required.

Check out the latest Hermes window display, straight from Paris

Mar 11, 2011 by Amanda Mull

LeÃ¯la Menchari has done it again. Hermes’ Window Design Director always comes up with fantastical displays for the window at the brand’s Paris flagship store, and her design for Spring 2011 debuted yesterday morning on Facebook. In contrast to some of Menchari’s previous work, spring’s look has a stark, industrial quality to it that highlights … Read more

Fashion Week Handbags: Celine Fall 2011

Mar 11, 2011 by Amanda Mull

Considering Celine’s track record of re-imagining classic handbag shapes over the past few seasons, it was only a matter of time before Phoebe Philo’s accessories crew made its way to the doctor bag. Having made fashion hits out of a leather box bag on a long strap an ornately trimmed shopping tote (not to mention launching a thousand copycats at nearly every price point), Celine Fall 2011 turned its sites on two traditional accessory staples: the frame satchel and the flat clutch.

Celine’s handbag aesthetic works so well because the brand is careful to pick shapes and ideas that lend themselves to Philo’s particular brand of disciplined traditionalism. And of course, these bags carry on the brand’s New Minimalist ethos quite well, stripping both shapes down to their most basic components and then realizing them in the most pristine and exacting way possible. It’s a method that has proved incredibly successful in the past, and these bags will no doubt continue that streak.

Balenciaga plans accessories for dogs

Mar 10, 2011 by Megs Mahoney Dusil

Said to be released next season, Balenciaga will launch a line of dog leashes and collars to join the group of luxury pet accessories.

Blake Lively for Chanel Ad Campaign

Mar 10, 2011 by Megs Mahoney Dusil

Blake Lively’s first Chanel Ad the other day and today I have more ad and behind the scene photos to share with you all.

Fashion Week Handbags: Louis Vuitton Fall 2011

Mar 15, 2011Mar 10, 2011 by Amanda Mull

It’s been a full month since all of the fashion week festivities started, and they’ve finally come to an end. Showing at the very end of the cycle can either be a blessing or a curse; if what you’ve put together is merely mediocre (or worse, if it’s flat-out bad), critics and buyers are more likely to look harshly on it because of our fatigue at four weeks worth of clothes and accessories. If the collection you’re presenting is as good as beautifully fetishistic Louis Vuitton Fall 2011, though, then you get the glorious distinction of closing out the season on a high note and having your clothes by foremost in the minds of editors.

Vuitton is not a handbag company that I normally look to for my own purchases because of my personal preference toward bags without logos, but its fall accessory offerings were easily some of the best of the entire season. The central idea of the handbag collection was a theme and variations starring the brand’s ever-popular Lockit shape, much like the Speedy iterations that we saw from Vuitton for Fall 2010. It’s an idea that worked well then and works well now, with the disciplined lines of the Lockit lending themselves seamlessly to the upscale kink of the Vuitton ready-to-wear. Let’s not talk about the fuzzy bags and pretend those never happened, ok? Everything else was too good of a distraction.

Fashion Week Handbags: Valentino Fall 2011

Mar 10, 2011 by Amanda Mull

In case you haven’t noticed (but I bet you have, we’re blessed with smart readers), python is sort of a thing for Fall 2011. It’s almost staggering how many accessories designers managed to have the exact same thought at the exact same time, and the powers that be at Valentino absolutely got the memo. Valentino Fall 2011 is chock full of exotics in traditional shapes, and if you don’t like that, the brand would also like to offer you the largest wristlets known to man.

While the boxy colorblocked crocodile options caught my attention immediately, as did the multicolored python satchel, I’m not feeling the rush of excitement that I usually get when I look at a collection that I know will give me endless joy over the next six months. These bags are an improvement over last season’s Valentino runway for sure, but they’re missing a bit of magic. Close, but no cigar.

Name That Bag: Puzzle #1

May 3, 2011Mar 9, 2011 by Megs Mahoney Dusil

Take part in our Name that Bag Puzzle 1!

Want it Wednesday: Alexander McQueen 3D Hobo

Mar 9, 2011 by Megs Mahoney Dusil

Sarah Burton had large shoes to fill when she stepped in at Alexander McQueen. But her transition has not only been seamless but has also continued to bring us gorgeous pieces. Right now I am absolutely obsessed with the Alexander McQueen 3D Hobo. While Neiman Marcus describes this bag as flower-detail, I would like to clarify: this my friends is black leather cutwork leaves. In a time when we have come to expect florals from the likes of Valentino, I feel refreshed with this look from McQueen.

Truth be told, leather flowers are gorgeous but with these floral leaves we have an earthy spirit brought to the design. The Alexander McQueen 3D Hobo is an ethereal beauty, and I can not stop any part of me from wanting it.

Fashion Week Handbags: Chanel Fall 2011

Mar 9, 2011Mar 9, 2011 by Amanda Mull

Oh, Karl Lagerfeld. You had me at The Cure.

There weren’t many handbags to be found on the catwalk at Chanel Fall 2011, which struck me as something of a surprise. Chanel fully acknowledges the place of leather goods in its company history, and normally part of its enthusiasm for accessories spills over onto the runway in the form of lots of goodies for handbag lovers. This time, though, there was relatively little to see.

What we did see in the goth dystopia that Lagerfeld created in Paris’ Grand Palais was quite good. Most of the bags were of the chain-strapped flap variety, but Lagerfeld got rid of the brand’s iconic quilting and leather-woven handles to give a starker take on a Chanel classic. Little quilted hand-held bags were spotted here and there, but mostly the models walked with their hands empty, perhaps in a nod to the bleak-chic setting of the show. Although I’m disappointed to not have seen more bags, now I’m even more excited for press previews. Chanel wins again.

Fashion Week Handbags: Chloe Fall 2011

Mar 9, 2011 by Amanda Mull

The more I look through the handbags from Chloe Fall 2011, the more I wonder who the Chloe girl is. I also wonder if Chloe’s accessories designers know the answer to that question, or if they’ve chosen instead to hope that they can make everyone feel like a Chloe girl by creating a collection that eschews a unifying aesthetic in favor of encompassing a group of ideas that are seemingly not related.

If you like hard-lined, ladylike handbags in exotic materials (or bags with actual animal heads), Chloe has a bag for you. If you spent all of your childhood lusting after your mom’s Coach bucket bags, well, there are plenty of designs that look like those as well. Are you a hippie who likes colorblocking and whipstitching? You’re not left out, either. Of course, bags aren’t sold as a collection; they’re sold as individual pieces to individual women who probably don’t care what the rest of the bags in the collection look like as long as they love the pieces that they’re buying. Still, though, I can’t shake the impression that this is a collection without an identity, and I’m not sure how you go about marketing that.