Custom Design

With the recent Fab or Drab activity, it is time we make our Fab or Drab category a more active part of PurseBlog.

Today’s installment comes from an eclectic (and sold out) evening bag. The Celestina Espasol Filigree Clutch has every aspect of an ornate evening piece that may meet your fancy. The box shaped clutch is silver-plated and shows off cutout filigree design. The design is in the detail of this bag, so don’t just glance over it. The clutch needs a better look.

I will freely admit that when I first spotted this clutch I found it to be gaudy. The design looked ostentatious and over-the-top. It was not until I enlarged the images that I saw the beauty in the craftsmanship of this piece. So I take back my initial reaction to this clutch, as I was not fully informed.

Other details include a howlite clasp to fasten at the top and a wood-backed vanity mirror. I am actually rather shocked at the price being so manageable for a silver-plated box clutch. The price tag is the norm for many evening bags, but this item is dressed up even more than others we see. Ultimately, it may come down to if you have use of a clutch like this in your wardrobe. $1,325 via NAP.

What do you think: Fab or Drab?

Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil

Last month, I wrote about the cash flow problems that Versace has and how better handbag design could potentially alleviate some of their woes. No other brand makes bags that are such a consistent running joke in high-end bag circles, and they have little to no rabid following when it comes to their accessories.

Sadly, the Versace Gree Shopper could not be a more apt example of why that is. Gaudy metallic? Check. Logos galore? Check. No leather to be found? Check. Astronomical price for a canvas tote? You better believe it.

Sadly, bags of this variety are the rule and not the exception at Versace. To me, they look like they’d best find an audience if they were sold in the juniors department at a mid-range department store for a drastically reduced price, but XOXO already has the corner on that market.

The stupid thing isn’t even attractive, and that irritates me. Versace could be a brand that makes fabulous, luxurious things, but instead they choose to make gold canvas totes and charge a stack and a half for them. Then they wonder why their business is in serious financial trouble, and bags like this make it difficult me to feel sorry for them. They do it to themselves. Buy through Nordstrom for $1425.

Original post by Amanda Mull

More accurately, trouble has been brewing for quite some time now.

We make light of Versace’s relatively piddling bag efforts on a regular basis (or whenever I can’t think of something more interesting to write about), but based on Dana Thomas’s very interesting article on the company’s troubles for the latest Newsweek, bad bags aren’t the only problems that Donatella & Co. are having.

Whether or not we want to hear it, handbags are one of the most profitable and important sectors of a worldwide luxury business – the only thing that makes more money for companies like Chanel and Dior is beauty. So is it true that as go purses, so goes the company?

That idea isn’t directly addressed in Thomas’s article, but it’s one that’s worth discussion. In her own book, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, Thomas explains in (sometimes painful, for purse lovers) detail the way that profits from cosmetics, fragrance and handbags have made high end brand conglomerates like LVMH and Gucci Group such cash cows.

And in these stark economic times, companies like Hermes and Louis Vuitton (which is obviously part of LVMH, but whose sales are tracked separately as well), which are overwhelmingly known for their handbags, are the ones producing healthy numbers. And since neither of those companies benefits directly from massive cosmetic sales, it stands to reason that their ability to sell handbags hand over fist has had a huge impact on their financial solvency during the luxury collapse. Versace’s handbags (and their prices) have become such a running joke around here, and we’re the exact people to which they should be trying to appeal – a niche audience of people that already spend gobs of money on bags. If you can’t sell a bag to us, who can you sell it to?

Surely Donatella’s coke-fiending and jet-setting haven’t helped the company be taken seriously as one that values design and quality, but if they could, at the very least, get their handbag division under control, then maybe the money would start rolling in in a meaningful way. And what of Versace’s shoe line? Shoes are steadily catching up with bags as on of the “it” items that savvy fashionistas must have, but when was the last time you saw, let alone coveted, a Versace shoe? I mean, they do make shoes, right? I’m having a hard time conjuring a mental picture of one. And if they don’t, why not? It’s another big margin product that sells well, even in this economy.

Thomas comes to the conclusion that it may be time for the family to exit the family business in order for the company to survive, and if they’re the ones responsible for the complete mishandling of the most profitable section of their company, than I can’t say that I disagree with her. Whatever happens, let’s hope that someone realizes that good bag design could help Versace stay afloat.

Picture via NYMag.com.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Do any of you guys watch Dexter? I’m utterly obsessed with it. I can’t recap it because it’s not at all fashioned-related, but if I could, I would. Also, I would marry Dexter and I wouldn’t be nearly as annoying and self-righteous as that a-hole Rita. Ahem.

I also really love the aesthetic that they have for their advertising and promotional materials – a bit minimalist, a bit comic book, a bit blood-spattered macabre – and when I saw the Giuseppe Zanotti Red Sequin Clutch, I couldn’t help but be reminded of America’s favorite serial killer.

For the uninitiated, Dexter is a killer than only kills other killers, and his day job is as a blood spatter analyst at the Miami Metro police department. The red-on-white, scattered visual that this sequin clutch creates remind me a lot of the blood spatter pictures that you see throughout the the series, although I’m sure that that probably wasn’t the inspiration for this clutch.

It’s merely a coincidence, but it makes me like this clutch a lot more than I probably would otherwise. It would be the perfect thing to wear to a Dexter-themed party, were you to have hundreds of extra dollars sitting around to spend on your themed outfit. Buy through BlueFly for $712.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2010 was goth, glam and very Victorian, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the bags. They lacked some of the personality and style of the clothes with which they were designed, but they were sort of interesting in their own right. Whatever way you slice it, however, knit and macrame do not say glam, goth, or Victorian.

The highlights for me were the variations on the successful Miss Sicily satchel shape and anything containing red leopard print (I know, I know, my “taste level” is not so awesome sometimes). Lowlights? Knit, knit, and more knit. Much like the clear vinyl totes that Prada showed earlier in the week, I can’t imagine that these are going to have much of an audience among handbag aficionados, but perhaps I’m wrong. Would you pay four figures for them?

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Images via Style.com

Original post by Amanda Mull

I look through a lot of fashion shows and various accessories presentations. It’s an occupational hazard, particularly at this time of year, and it can be a little hypnotizing after a white. Click. Belted shift. Click. High-waisted trousers. Click. Oh, a cropped jacket. Click.

If the show isn’t wow-worthy, it can be easy to flip through Style.com without really absorbing what I’m looking at, much like I did with my textbooks in high school (and, let’s face it, college). But I looked through Gucci Handbags Spring 2010 twice, with rapt attention – not only is this Frida Giannini’s best collection of clothing since her era at the brand began, but it’s also the strongest lineup of accessories that I’ve seen from the brand in years.

The collection’s clothes have a way of being minimal and ornate simultaneously, and that’s the only way to describe the bags as well. Even the lean, angular clutches are fashioned out of candy-colored crocodile skin that makes me want to say “I’ll take one in every color,” hand over my credit card, and not look at the total on the receipt.

And that’s just the beginning. There’s texture galore by way of exotics like crocodile and python and Gucci’s signature logo embossing, and a few of the company’s classic details, like bamboo handles and horse bit hardware. The collection was varied and nuanced, containing a little bit of something for everyone; it was perhaps the most wearable, beautiful bag collection I’ve seen grace the runway in several seasons.

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Images via Style.com

Original post by Amanda Mull

On the one hand, I think the JCrew Lugano Leather Suitcase is really pretty. It looks really well made, and J. Crew’s website says that it’s manufactured by some big-deal Italian manufacturer called Dell’Ga. I’m sure they’re awesome, and I’m sure this is a wonderful suitcase. BUT IT’S BASICALLY WHITE! I know the color is called “stone,” which implies that there’s some grey to it, but still. Almost white. And a decent-sized suitcase seems like it would be the single most impractical thing in the world to manufacture in such a light color.

Airports are disgusting (at least to me) in pretty much every way imaginable, and I don’t like putting my cheap duffel bag on the dirty conveyor belt to be checked, let alone a nearly $2000 piece of nearly white handcrafted luggage. It also doesn’t have any little wheelies on it, meaning you’re lugging it by yourself, and it weighs nearly nine pounds when completely empty. The price, the color, and the lack of functionality lead me to only one conclusion – these bags are made for those that have OTHERS that see to it that their luggage arrives safely at their destination. Buy through J.Crew for $1800.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Sometimes, bags are functional - they carry all of your stuff to and from work or school, they give you a place to put things so you don’t lose them, and they compliment your outfit. Sometimes, though, bags can be a statement - that you’re a fan of a certain aesthetic, that you are of a certain socioeconomic status, or that you have a particular personality that you’d like to express to others. And then there are those bags that are purely there to show other fashion people just how “in the know” you are. I think that’s the case with the Comme des Garcons Cowhide Tote, which is stamped with the edgy, ultra-cool line’s signature clover pattern. The only people that will know it’s cool are the other extremely fashionable people, and if that’s the image you want to project, then something like this is the bag for you. If that’s not your main concern, then this is just another boring-shaped black leather tote, and you could get some with more of a “design” to it for the same price. Just depends on what part of yourself you’re trying to put out there, I suppose. Buy through Saks for $515.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Our friend Marc Jacobs sure does love to court trouble. He overshares about his personal life, tattoos random things on his body, and dates more men that most college sorority girls (don’t take offense, ladies - I, too, was a college sorority girl). And ever since Mr. Marc took over as the creative […]

Original post by Amanda Mull

Handbags and shoes, what a wonderful combination. And I have to say, Mr. Louboutin tends to make me a happy camper when it comes to both categories. I’ve always dreamed of owning a pair of his shoes. In fact, I usually stop and admire his shoes any time I get a chance. And his clutches, […]

Original post by Shannon