Get your wardrobe summer ready with anchor accessories

For part of Memorial Day weekend, Vlad and I hopped over to the Hamptons to kick off summer. We didn’t have the best weather, most definitely not sunbathing weather, so instead we walked the beach and picked out future fantasy homes that we want to buy. Even though I grew up near the beach in South Florida, there is something different about Northeast coastal towns. From Providence to the Hamptons, the summer beach life up here has its own flare.

While anchors seem to have quite the rugged, realistic job, when they are placed on accessories and clothing they add such a nice summer touch. It might just be what’s left of New York City’s Fleet Week fever, or maybe that I just came from the Hamptons, but I am yearning to add nautical stripes and anchor touches to my summer wardrobe. If you feel the same, I found three great anchor accessory options to instantly turn your look summer ready.

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The Many Bags of Jessica Alba

After a few years of writing daily posts at BagThatStyle, I’ve found celebrities toward whose pictures I always gravitate when I’m looking for things to write about. All celebrities carry a great bag from time to time, but only a select few change things up often enough and with enough creativity that the very sight of them in paparazzi photos guarantees not only a fabulous purse, but a different fabulous purse than they were carrying three days prior. Jessica Alba is easily in the top tier of bag-loving celebs, which means that it’s time to take a look at some of her handbag highlights.

For a long time, Alba tended to gravitate toward tan. So much so, in fact, that I expected to find almost exclusively brown leather bags on her arm when I started researching this post. In fact, it seems like she’s switched up her bag game quite a bit since then, with bags in a variety of colors, materials and price levels. Alba’s personal style is the epitome of weekend casual chic, and her penchant for slouchy, easy-to-carry bags goes right along with that look with an extra-glam option thrown in every now and then, just for good measure. Check out the best of Jessica’s handbag looks after the jump!

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Reed Krakoff gives us a really great green

Anyone who’s stepped foot inside the accessories section of a department store in the past few months has probably realized that bright colors are a certifiable Thing (with a capital “T”) for Summer 2012, and I have to say, ladies and gents, I’m not mad at it. We talked about yellow bags quite a bit yesterday, and while I still find myself on that bold, sunshine-y bandwagon a full 24 hours later, I felt as though a bright bag in a different shade deserved a spotlight all its own: the Reed Krakoff Gym Bag in a hue that the company calls “zephyr green.” It sure feels like a breath of fresh air to me.

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Fact Check: Clint Eastwood’s Daughter and the Tale of the $100,000 Burning Birkin

As some of you have probably read, there’s a set of photos going around the Internet that purport to show Clint Eastwood’s 19-year-old daughter Francesca Eastwood chewing on, sawing in half and then setting ablaze a “$100,000 Hermes Crocodile Birkin” (scare quotes intentional, you’ll see why in a second), all in the name of art. (“Art.”) The photos appear on the website of photographer Tyler Shields, Eastwood’s boyfriend, and their creation will reportedly be documented in an episode of her E! reality show, Mrs. Eastwood and Company, set to run next week.

The Internet has been clutching its collective pearls since TMZ first posted about this story a few days ago, with people expressing outrage about a number of issues they have with the photos and their artistic goals. (Among the complaints I’ve read: torching something that costs that much money is both aggressively stupid and wasteful, anyone would spend $100,000 on a handbag in the first place is obscene, and Francesca is bringing shame to her father’s good name and disrespecting an iconic piece of design in the process.) It seems to us, though, that everyone’s ignoring a lot of fairly clear factual inaccuracies in this whole dumb stunt that render the debate moot – no one burned a crocodile Birkin at all, despite what an aspiring reality star, her publicity-hungry boyfriend and the network that brought us four distinct Kardashian-based shows want you to believe. We’ve got the skinny, plus the rest of the photos, after the jump.

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Add some sunshine to your life with the season’s best yellow bags

Last week’s weather in New York City was pretty terrible. There was nothing but rain, fog and stifling humidity for days on end, and even when the sun did peek out, it only served to seemingly boil the moisture in the air. Suffice it to say, my hair was not happy, and neither was the rest of me. Generally, days like those turn New York into a wide swath of dark neutrals – black umbrellas, grey and tan rain coats, black Hunter boots. I just can’t deal with that kind of monochrome city, and naturally, my favorite cure for the rainy day blahs is a sunshine-y bright bag.

And so, we present you with our picks for the seasons best in cheerful yellow. No matter whether the weather where you are is dreary or pristine, yellow provides a jolt like no other. For people who are slow to embrace the shade because it doesn’t flatter their skin tones, a bag is the perfect way to give it a shot – your bag and your tan don’t need to go together in the same way that your clothes need to bring out your best undertones. Check out our full list after the jump.

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Nothing says “Happy Birthday” quite like a Proenza Schouler PS1 cake!

If there’s two things that all of us at PurseBlog love, it’s handbags and sweets. If you’re here, you already know about our handbag obsession, but if you follow PurseBlog on Instagram, that’s where you get a much deeper look into the collective psyche of our team. Spoiler alert: Our collective psyche is covered in frosting, much like this awesome Proenza Schouler PS1 Birthday Cake from Sweet Kat’s Creations in Chicago.

It’s such a close recreation of the bag and all its details that even the team at Proenza was impressed; they tweeted this picture of the finished product a few days ago, and naturally, we had to investigate further. Sweet Kat’s blog details the construction process for the cake, all the way to the use of a rolling puncture tool to get the stitched look around the edges of the fondant “leather.” It’s an impressively spot-on cake recreation, and with a filling of lemon cake and strawberries, I bet it tastes as good as it looks. Check out a few more pictures of the assembly process after the jump or read Sweet Kat’s full post via her blog! Or, if you want even more handbag sweets, you can revisit those awesome Celine Luggage Tote cookies or the chocolate purses we recommended for Mother’s Day!

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The Bags of Celine Winter 2012

Most brands have Pre-Fall, which debuts in stores during the historically fashion-barren summer months, followed by the full Fall collection, which hits at the end of summer and features a more robust and often more daring lineup of pieces. Celine, on the other hand, does it (plus almost everything else) a little differently. The brand’s pre-collection is termed Fall, while the later-arriving goods are called Winter. Thus, we present you with The Bags of Celine Winter 2012, which we bet will see you happily through to the holidays.

These bags just came up for pre-order at Kirna Zabete, among other places, and if you want one of the super chic colorblocked Celine Luggage Totes, the stunning white python Celine Phantom Luggage, the all-new Celine Cabas Phantom (lined in metallic!) or one of the many (many) other must-haves from the collection, your best bet is to get on someone’s list immediately. First things first, though: you have to take a look at the collection photos after the jump to decide what you want before any ordering can be done.

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Need a gorgeous clutch that doesn’t empty your bank account? Check out Kotur on Moda Operandi

I don’t say this around here enough: I love Kotur clutches, which are designed by native New Yorker Fiona Kotur. The brand is small and independent, but the designs are the type of bold, self-assured look that you’d expect to see from a much bigger (not to mention much more expensive) brand. Kotur makes larger bags that stretch into the thousands of dollars, but its clutches are really where the company’s aesthetic shines, and all of the pieces on the Moda Operandi Resort 2013 pre-sale retail for $650 or less.

On the higher end of that price spectrum, you’ll find solid brass minaudieres embellished with snakeskin, sequins or glitter, plus larger clutches made out of striated inlaid perspex. For $295, there are a couple of embossed lizard options, and in between those two price levels there are all kinds of goodies to covet. Check out the collection after the jump, or if you’ve already seen enough, shop the pre-sale at Moda Operandi through May 30.

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Your first look at Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton is famous for a lot of things at this point, and among them is the brand’s highly profitable relationship with the modern art community. Vuitton has collaborated with world-famous artists like Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami on collections that have been nothing short of wildly successful, and in the process, that brand has spurred a full-on collaborative art trend among accessories brands as wide-ranging as Christian Dior and Coach. It’s a match made in retail heaven.

We reported a few months ago that the next artist to gussy up Vuitton’s signature handbags (in addition to accessories, shoes and ready-to-wear) would be Japanese dot-enthusiast Yayoi Kusama, and now, via Women’s Wear Daily, we have your first glimpse at what those pieces will look like. As expected, they’re covered in varying amounts of polka dots, and the collection is also reported to include wave prints. The first wave of pieces (ready-to-wear and small accessories) will debut in stores on July 10 with a major handbag and accessories push coming in October. Check out more pieces after the jump, including a couple of glimpses at the collection’s bags! (As we understand it, the embellished Louis Vuitton Ellipse that Kusama is holding above is not part of the collection; instead, it’s a bag that the artist hand-customized for Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs.)

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Tods D-Styling Medium Bag in Green Python is enviable

I have no complaints about Tod’s, it’s just that I am never really into their bags. Tod’s is known for their clean lines and quality materials, but their designs are so subdued that I often find them a bit forgettable. However, the Spring 2012 collection from Tod’s caught my attention when I previewed it, and now I have a bag that I am positively obsessed with.

I am so in love with the Tod’s D-Styling Medium Bag in green python. The timeless design in luxurious sueded python is so delicious I can’t stop staring at it. This bag pairs elegance with a fashion-forward flare and everyone should feel a twinge of wanting once your set your sights on it.

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Brand to Watch: Mark Cross

With so much flash in the luxury accessories industry, it’s nice to come across a brand that goes in entirely the opposite direction. There’s something to be said for a simple, perfectly made leather bag that embraces subtlety, and that’s exactly what you’ll find from Mark Cross. The American brand dates back to the mid-1800s, and although it was shuttered in the late 90s, new leadership reopened the brand in 2010 as a heritage leather goods line.

Barneys picked up the bags almost immediately, which should tell you a little bit about the quality and craftsmanship that goes into them. The designs are free of external branding and lack flashy hardware, which means that the materials take center stage. Most of the shapes are traditional and familiar, although not directly reminiscent of another brand’s signatures, which leads to an overall feel of traditional luxury. Best of all, though, the bag’s prices don’t reach into the realm of the Hermeses and Delvauxes of the world. check out our favorites after the jump.

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