Custom Design

It has been a little while since we’ve all been in the midst of a fringe debate. If you remember, not too long ago, it seemed as if every other bag was adorned with some kind of fringe. I for one never really got sick of bags with fringe, but I can see how so many of you handbag lovers out there did. Fringe can completely make or break a great bag.

So, I was a little surprised to see this Tod’s bag with so much fringe. Aren’t you? No matter what you think about fringe, you have to admit, this bag is rather exquisite in its own way.

There have been so many fringe bags we’ve covered in the past that seemed to be perfect for a younger crowd. However, one of the first things I noticed about the Tod’s G-Bag Frange Media is that it clearly appeals to a wide age range, which I am always a fan of. The tiered fringe adds just the right amount of movement to the bag without it looking a complete mess. I could carry this during the day as easily as I could to dinner or for a night out with friends. How can you miss the color? I know Summer is coming up next but this bag would be beyond perfect for Fall! This is the kind of bag that is a perfect combination of formal and fun. Sure, that might sound a bit like an oxymoron, but it is true. And if you are as big of a fan of this bag as I am, you better order it now – it’s already on back order! Buy through Bergdorf Goodman for $1695.

Original post by Shannon Mahoney

I’m not sure if Jimmy Choo purposely set out to become the Juicy Couture of the “premier designer” set or not (although I’m guessing not), but sometimes they seem to be headed in that direction anyway. I absolutely love half of what they do, but the other half is looking dangerously over-designer and overworked these days. It seems as though for every brilliant bag they make, they also make one that makes me cock my head to the side and wrinkle my nose in confusion.

The Jimmy Choo Tita Snakeskin and Suede-Fringe Clutch would be a bag of the latter variety. I love the natural coloring of the material and the size of the bag, but my admiration ends there. For some reason, not only did they use a zigzag patchwork pattern that totally interrupts the natural grain of the snakeskin, but they also thought weaving it with suede would be a good idea…but only on one corner. I’m not even sure I can talk about the fringe.

I like this clutch a little better when it’s carried with the optional chain shoulder strap, but I just can’t forgive Jimmy Choo for what it did to that beautiful piece of snakeskin. It’s all chopped up and weird now, instead of being the beautiful, naturally patterned piece of material that it should be. The best exotic bags are the ones that use the skin’s texture so well that they make you catch your breath and think, “Holy crap, that’s beautiful, I want to touch it,” but this one just doesn’t have that appeal for me.

And then, of course, the fringe. It’s long enough to be seriously annoying when you’re trying to carry the bag by hand, but not long enough to make any kind of dramatic or artistic statement. As it is, it’s in some sort of weird fringe purgatory, and the drab color doesn’t add much to the mood of the bag. With a few tweaks, this clutch could have been great, but right now it just looks like it’s trying too hard. At least the price is somewhat reasonable (for snake). Buy through Net-a-Porter for $995.

Original post by Amanda Mull

This bag is worth discussing. I came across the Burberry Prorsum Medium Osprey Leather Tote and I had an overwhelming need to look at it closer. While I couldn’t put my finger on why I needed to look closer, I knew I had to.

As much as I can appreciate the signature Burberry plaid, I really love how they continue to put out other fabulous bags that might not jump out as Burberry until you look at the label. This bag completely fits that bill. This silver leather tote has the slightest fringe effect throughout the bag. I barely think fringe when I see the bag, but we can work with it. I love how chic, eccentric and unique the bag is. You definitely do not see something similar every day.

The one handle looks completely fabulous and supple has a 5″ drop. If you choose to put it on your shoulder, it will fit snugly, but it won’t be uncomfortable. The ruching at the sides pull the leather and its fringe in a clever way to draw the eye and curiosity in. Open up the bag and you will find black designer-stamped lining, two internal sections and a couple of pockets. This bag made an appearance on the runway and I’d love to have it make an appearance on my arm. I might dare to say this is one of my favorite Burberry bags I’ve seen in a while. Do you like this look or do you prefer the traditional Burberry bags? Buy through Net-a-Porter for 1695.

Original post by Shannon Mahoney

In the fashion industry (and, increasingly, in any industry), the phrase “Chinese craftsmanship” is usually an implied pejorative. Fairly or unfairly, things that are made in China are generally assumed to be less well-made than those made in Europe or the US, and much has been made over a handful of Chinese product recalls that have been announced for deadly dog food and baby formula or lead-filled toothpaste.

So when Hermes says that they’re going to launch a Chinese-designed, Chinese-manufactured luxury brand, surely they jest, correct? Wrong. Hermes never jests. According to Women’s Wear Daily, the new brand, Shang Xia, will be helmed by a head designer from the Chinese mainland, feature products made from Chinese materials and techniques and be autonomous from the design influence of its legendary parent company. All things considered, is it time to reevaluate our preconceived notions about Chinese-made goods?

Developments in Chinese fashion probably can’t be extrapolated out to optimism about more mundane Chinese exports, but considering how strongly so many of our forum members feel about their favorite brands outsourcing manufacturing to Asia, it’s still a phenomenon worth discussing.

In her oft-quoted book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, Dana Thomas explains some unfortunate, well-hidden truths about Asian fashion manufacturing. As it turns out, many of those “Made in Italy” or “Made in France” tags on our favorite bags are technicalities at best. As is the case with lots of electronics, cars, appliances and other consumer items that boast a “Made in the USA” label, most of the components that go into the manufacture of our handbags are made overseas, often in China, before they’re shipped to their final assembly destination to receive their finishing touches and the all-important tag.

Some brands still do all their manufacturing where they say that they do, some save the European manufacturing for runway pieces and outsource the more mundane things to China and some do it all overseas. They all go to great lengths to hide any of their Asian manufacturing from the eyes of their consumers, but fashion is a bottom-line-focused business and Chinese factories present an opportunity to save money that’s too difficult to resist.

Is that necessarily a bad thing? Maybe not. Not all Chinese factories are created equal, and I don’t see why it would be impossible for a brand to enforce meticulous quality standards in whatever factory and country that they choose to produce their bags, as long as they have the correct oversight structure in place. Sure, China is known as the originator of many of the fake handbags that we all hate, but that doesn’t mean LVMH or a company nearly as powerful couldn’t build a state-of-the-art factory for authentic goods down the street. There is nothing inherent in Chinese soil that means that everything that we import from the country must be total crap.

Hermes’s investment in Chinese craftsmanship is perhaps the most striking measure thus far to indicate that China is coming into its own as both a market for and source of luxury fashion. Much has been made over the country’s burgeoning middle class, and it only stands to grown more over the next decade. It’s natural that consumers with newfound expendable income will look to companies in their own country for goods on which to spend it, and giving the Chinese an opportunity to do that may very well be a lucrative venture for the people behind this decision at Hermes. In addition to that, it’s one more step towards legitimizing Chinese manufacturing in the Euro-centric fashion industry, for better or for worse.

Original article via Women’s Wear Daily.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Great googly moogly, people. I sit here every day and talk about $2500 handbags like they’re the most normal thing in the world, so most sane people would consider me somewhat desensitized to luxury prices. And they’d probably be right – I sort of consider Balenciaga bags to be a steal, since most of their motorcycle styles are still priced under $1500.

But even the fact that I don’t live in objective reality when it comes to the prices of designer duds can’t stop my mouth from falling slightly agape at the fact that those in the Fashion Ivory Tower want us to pay $73,000 for the Balmain Crocodile Tail Leather Jacket. Let’s get a better look, after the jump…

Don’t get me wrong – I love this jacket almost as much as that guy from Anchorman loves lamp. It’s fantastically hip, impeccably tailored and made out of the most luxurious leather on the face of the planet. It’s post-apocolyptic chic and so cool it hurts me to look at it. I want to live in it. It may be the greatest jacket that I have ever glimpsed in my young life. But holy crap, $74,000?!?!

Off the top of my head, the things that I could buy with that include: a black-on-black BMW ͵ with an engine upgrade, a big down payment on a modernist condo in a really nice building in midtown Atlanta, a herd of tiny Bulldog puppies to follow me everywhere I go, a freaking boat (not that I even want a boat), a houseful of Jonathan Adler furniture, rugs, linens, and accessories, or a lifetime supply of Apple laptops, so that it would no longer be a big deal when I knock mine off the couch.

Or I could buy an absolutely sublime Balmain jacket. The grousing about price can be easily extrapolated down to the price levels that we normally talk about – $1500 is a mortgage payment that is hard to come by for a lot of people. I recognize the inherent hypocrisy. But as with everything, there are degrees to exorbitant pricing, and this jacket may have reached one with which I am simply not comfortable. But, if you happen to have $74,000+shipping laying around and you’re a French size 38 (and if it’s only available in that size, that means it has already sold out in all the other ones. Wrap your head around that), you can buy it through Luisa Via Roma for $73,935.

Original post by Amanda Mull

File this under “Things That Really Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone, Ever.”

According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Renee Richardson Gosline (yeah, that’s right, MIT is interested in your handbag), consumers are far more likely to identify a counterfeit bag as real when worn by someone that “looks” rich and a real bag as counterfeit when worn by someone that “looks” poor. I’m not sure why that would come as a huge surprise to anyone, but the fact that its been scientifically confirmed means that we can all congratulate ourselves on being logical, I suppose..

Before you fire up the keyboard and claim in the comments that you don’t care if people think your bag is fake or that it’s shallow for people to assume things about you because you dress a certain way, please slow your roll and read the stuff after the jump.

Inherent in fashion is the desire to create a cohesive personal style and public image, and if we weren’t expecting for it to matter in some way how we portray ourselves to the world, then we’d just all wear sweatpants and Ugg boots like we all really want to, deep down (or maybe I’m projecting). And it’s okay! Caring about public perception is actually a very grown-up thing to do, no matter how many times you told your mom that you didn’t care what people thought of you as a teenager.

As it turns out, the efforts that we make on behalf of our egos are perceived pretty accurately, which is to say that people with money usually do a good job looking like they have money, and others are more likely to assume that the bags of wealthy-looking people are real. On the other hand, most people think a bag is fake if the other contextual clues in the wearer’s appearance don’t project wealth.

The most relevant conclusion of the study for people that love authentic bags is that buying a counterfeits, by itself, isn’t fooling anyone. Carrying a fake bag (one which many people might perceive as expensive in another context) isn’t enough to override everything else about someone’s appearance – instead of making the person look rich by proximity, it just makes everyone think that the bag they’re carrying is fake. That means that the people out there that bought a fake Louis Vuitton and have no other personal style to speak of wasted their money, and most people are able to accurately surmise that their bag isn’t the real thing. As it turns out, you really can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, as they say.

Bloomberg really managed to bury the lede on this article, though. All of the previous stuff seems fairly logical, but what I found most interesting was this little statistic, nestled at the end: Of women that buy counterfeit bags, 46% go on to buy the real thing within two years. People that buy fakes may think that they have one over on the rest of us bag-buying fools, but as it turns out, a lot of them are just at the beginning of a fashion progression that will ultimately turn them into the high-dollar consumers that they thought they could fool with a pleather Gucci.

Original article via Bloomberg.com.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Something is rotten in the state of Louisiana.

As we all know by now, the luxury market was hit hard by last year’s economic collapse. Despite what some snide fashion-haters would tell you, the industry in fact does affect people at every level of the economy, and Louisiana’s alligator farmers are just the most recent people to feel the pressure as a result of tough economic times, according to The New York Times.

It would follow logically that reduced retail sales have lead to a drop in international interest in exotic skins, of which alligator is among the most expensive, but the farmers tell it a bit differently. According to them, it’s all Hermes’s fault.

The economic progression of alligator skins goes something like this: farmers on the American Gulf Coast, mostly in small operations in Louisiana, harvest eggs from natural habitats. 12% of the hatched gators are returned to the wild, the others are raised for their skins. Tanneries buy the skins from these small farmers and process them in order to be suitable for the manufacture of watches, handbags, and other various and sundry luxury goods. When they’re done being processed, luxury manufacturers purchase them and turn them into the asininely expensive things that we know and love.

Once upon a time, those three were completely separate from each other, but then Hermes started buying up tanneries. Now they’re the biggest tanners in the business and are therefore able to control the flow and prices of alligator skins in ways that were previously impossible, according to the farmers. Hermes is now its own middle man, in addition to being the middle man for a huge swath of its luxury competitors.

The farmers think that that may indeed be the cause of their current problems. Prices for raw alligator hides have dropped precipitously, to the point where its not profitable for some operations to continue raising the animals, and many skins go unsold completely. On the other end of the equation, non-Hermes luxury brands complain that the cost of tanned alligator skins has risen so much that it’s almost no longer profitable to use them in the manufacture of things like watches and loafers because consumers are unwilling to keep pace with the rising prices.

Well isn’t that odd? If my memory of freshman econ serves me correctly, prices shouldn’t be way up on one end of the supply chain while prices are rock-bottom at the other end. Something’s going on in the middle, and many people posit that that something is Hermes’s tannery ownership. The farmers accuse the company of hoarding the skins for themselves, making the purchase of finished skins prohibitively expensive for other brands, which makes overall demand for untanned skins (as well as prices) drop on the farmer’s end.

Hermes representatives claim that they only buy up about 30% of the available gator skins, but one has to wonder if that’s really the case, considering the disparate price problems coming from farmers and competing luxury brands. Or maybe 30% is enough to throw the entire industry out of whack and give Hermes a significant competitive advantage. Either way, something is going on that may wipe alligator off of the luxury market completely if things don’t change. Except for at Hermes, of course.

Original story via NYTimes.com
Image via TheOnion.com

Original post by Amanda Mull

In my region of the country, usually we get a nice, gentle transition from summer to fall, and the weather is generally mild until around the holidays. This year, that’s not the case: one day it was 80 degrees, the next day it was 50, and I’ve had to pull out my winter clothes a lot earlier than I ever have in recent memory. And with that comes one of my favorite vestiges of cold weather: my much-loved but widely reviled UGG boots.

Don’t get me wrong – I resisted for years. They first came to popularity around the time that I started college, and for three long years, I snickered and rolled my eyes every time I saw a girl wear them. I joined a Facebook group about how hideous they were. I considered them utterly and completely gauche.

And then I tried on a pair.

Suddenly, the sun shone brighter, rainbows were more plentiful, and flowers smelled better. The world was a nicer place. And it caused me to do something that I hadn’t done since elementary school: I left the store with my new shoes on my feet and my old ones in their box. Two more pairs of Classic Short boots and two years later, I actually love them more than my summertime staple, Havaianas flip-flops.

I wear them everywhere. To a bar with tights, to the grocery store with sweatpants, and every occasion in between. I try my best to not wear them with gym shorts, but sometimes I falter. And I’m okay with that – the UGGs are worth the occasional raised eyebrow.

Normally I’m not one to let function triumph over fashion, but the boots have totally won me over. They’ve been around for quite a while at this point, and I think that maybe more people are starting to accept them as a normal part of winter attire instead of a trendy item for young girls. From time to time, they still make me feel like I’m an 18-year-old coed, but perhaps there are worse ways to feel.

So, have you started drinking the UGG Kool-Aid yet? If you haven’t and wish to never venture down that road, I have but one piece of advice for you – never, ever let anyone convince you to try on a pair. Not even just for a second, just to see how it feels.

A wide variety of UGG boots are available via Bloomingdale’s.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Alright, I’m bored.

I’m sick of designers making cocktail dresses out of actual fabric with a reasonable budget and amount of time within which to accomplish things. I want coffee filters and corn husks and candy wrappers. I want to watch a dozen designers make something out of nothing with very little time in which to do it, because when you expect fashion miracles from people, sometimes you get astoundingly great stuff. Remember Blue Cup Dress, or what about Pleated Twizzler Wrapper Dress? A great designers can make a great dress out of anything. A mediocre Project Runway contestant can make something passable out of fabric, if given enough time. Those challenges are what separate the men from the boys on Project Runway.

And apparently, we shall have none of that on Lifetime. What was this week’s challenge? Party dresses! For models! And I guess it was at least partly interesting, because it sharply underlined which designers really aren’t familiar with the fashion industry, with models, with what models actually wear in their down time, or with what looks good on a model. And I guess that all of those things are kind of important if you want to be a designer.

The party-dresses-for-models challenge was actually a bit of a blast from the past – in season 2 (I believe), the models got to tell their designers what they wanted to wear, which is what happened here. And not only did this process indicate which designers weren’t really aware of how “fashion people” dress, but it also did the same for the models. Perhaps I’m being too judge-y, but it seems like the subsets of both groups that didn’t understand this concept were the ones least likely to have a grip on what it takes to make it in the world of high fashion, and are subsequently least likely to succeed.

For those that don’t follow this world as obsessively as I do, models don’t dress like regular humans. Not the really good ones, anyway, and at least part of the trick to this business is fooling people into believing your own hype. Successful models wear Alexander Wang and Band of Outsiders and shop at Opening Ceremony, and the ones that don’t have the cash on hand at least have a good enough eye to pick through vintage and consignment deals and find fabulous things that would look ridiculous on the rest of us (they are models, after all). Take a look at any of the photos from this week’s New York Fashion Week after parties, and you’ll see what I mean.

But, sadly, some of the designers that have spent their lives thus far on the outskirts of the fashion world didn’t quite get that. But some of them did. So who was really good, and who was really bad?

Our top three were Carol Hannah, Althea, and Epperson. And I couldn’t have agreed more – they all made things young and edgy enough to be worn by a successful high fashion model, and I probably would have agreed with any of them taking home the crown this week. Epperson was my favorite, if only because his model gave him a thousand different directions in which to go and he had to coalesce all of that into a wearable, sexy, totally model-y dress. It was the kind of thing that would look ridiculous on a mere mortal, and that’s exactly the kind of thing that models should always wear. It’s how you know they’re really models.

Both Althea and Carol Hannah made things that would be wearable for model or mortal. Carol Hannah’s dress was flowy and purple on top, tailored and dark on the bottom, and absolutely divine. The kick pleat on the back of the skirt provided a little bit of movement, as did the draping at the bust, and I want one immediately. But the winner was Althea, who creates a totally modern, totally not stuffy three-piece suit that was so incredibly on-trend and appropriate for a model that I could barely speak. It was exactly the kind of outfit that you see girls wear at after parties and openings, and the blazer and the proportions of the skirt and tank were spot-on. Any of the top three could have been legitimately given the win, and I have no problem with Althea being chosen.

Qristyl, Johnny and Logan were the bottom three. Qristyl just isn’t a particularly talented high fashion designer (something we already knew), which was why she was there. She made a ruched (the only thing she knows how to do is cut and ruche, apparently) black cocktail dress that was not the most atrocious thing we’ve ever seen from her, but certainly not particularly young or fun or edgy, which is what a model needs to be. It was bulky and looked like something that could easily have been found at a mall store.

Johnny made what was very aptly described as a bridesmaid dress (as did Shirin’s, but at least the color and fabric were better), and it wasn’t even a particularly sleek one. It was bunchy and awkward and had two different waistlines. The fabric looked like it would make noise when the model walked and it added pounds to her frame, which is obviously even more of a sin in model world than it is in everyday life. On top of all that, it didn’t even appear to fit her particularly well, which is also even worse than it would normally be since the garment was supposed to be a bespoke piece made specifically for her use.

And then there was Logan, who was a surprise first-time visitor to the bottom of the barrel. Logically, he shouldn’t have been there – his own personal style indicates that he understands the odd and wonderful pieces of clothing that fashion people embrace (guest judge and stylist Jennifer Rade even complimented him on his own clothes), and his model seems like the kind of woman that has enough personal style and point of view that she’d ask for something interesting (I had to actually watch ‘Models of the Runway’ to find out more about her – it was terrible and more or less an abomination against God). And she did – she gave him 50s, feathers, lace and all kinds of fun stuff. He should have done more with it, and he didn’t.

But Logan lives to fight another day because Qristyl was the one that was ultimately auf’d. Which was the correct decision, since she’s not playing in the same league with the rest of these people, and she hasn’t been since the beginning. Getting her out of the way was a necessary trimming of the fat before we (hopefully) get to more interesting challenges.

As for next week, it looks like we might get an interesting challenge – is that newspaper that I spy on those dress forms next week?

Original post by Amanda Mull

So, as it turns out, bloggers get national holidays off too! Who would have known? Real Housewives of Atlanta and Labor Day conspired to make our Project Runway recap a little later than is ideal, but better late than never, right? Of course.

With that in mind, we’re going to try and make this one quick and dirty. For our take on what happened, make the jump.

So what did they do? They made surf outfits. Which have no relevancy to fashion whatsoever, and seems like such a throwaway challenge. What have they done so far? Evening gowns, maternity, and surf. And none of them were made out of nuts and bolts or auto parts or cabbage. And that’s a problem for me, because most self-professed designers that make it on to Project Runway can make a dress out of fabric just fine, even if it’s for a pregnant lady. I want something that’s actually a challenge, that shows resourcefulness and creativity and the willingness to take a risk. So far, the only people to take risks have been kicked off. Bo-ring.

And then the designers were told that, gasp, it was time to also make an avant garde outfit. Which made no sense, because it had no relevancy to the original idea of surf wear. Avant garde designers don’t also make usable surf wear, and designers that actually make usable bathing suits don’t also make avant garde things. At least when Bravo tried this trick, their juxtaposition of two looks made sense – it was pret-a-porter vs. couture, not surf wear vs. wonky surf wear. But if it’s this or nothing, I guess I choose this.

As promised, we got our first partner challenge. Our principle whiners were Qristyl and Epperson, who didn’t do well but also didn’t go home. At judging, instead of talking about their design, they each talked about how much the other person was a giant d-bag. Always productive, guys.

Speaking of judging, the entire thing kind of confused me. When they called out the first three teams, I thought for sure that they were the ones that would be in the top. Instead, they told ‘em to go backstage. We were left with Mitchell and Ra’mon, Qristyl and Epperson, Irina and Johnny, and Nicolas and Gordana.

Irina and Johnny made some perfectly reasonable stuff, and I kind of liked the over-the-top take on macrame that constituted their avant garde look. Their surf wear look was also unoffensive and wearable, even quite pretty from the back. But they didn’t win. And neither did the aforementioned duo of Qristyl and Epperson – anyone that bickers like that shall never win. They weren’t oh-my-god-my-eyes-they-burn bad, but bad nonetheless.

The other terribleness was Nicolas and Gordana, who made a not-that-bad macrame top and billowy pants that had some hem issues, but also managed to make an outfit for what could only have been a tranny hooker of the sea. When stretch lace garters and micro-minis get involved, things can only be bad, unless you’re dressing up as 80s Madonna for Halloween. The chiffon collar was not bad, but everything below it made that angry vein in my forehead pop out. But they didn’t go home either.

Which leaves us with only one team and no winners or losers so far – Mitchell and Ra’mon. Their partnership was a debacle, and that’s probably putting it charitably. They had both been in the bottom three the week before, and Mitchell had yet to make anything resembling wearable clothing for both previous episodes. He really went for the threepete here; instead of making a contribution to the team’s two looks, he made a bikini that we didn’t even get to see and burned himself with an iron.

Ra’mon made the fairly average surf look and then made and remade the avant garde look until he came up with an asymmetrical cocktail dress made out of green neoprene. It wasn’t my favorite thing that I’ve ever seen (and I thought at least 3 or 4 of the other avant garde looks were better), but if anyone ever deserved an A for effort, it was him. He made two actual sets of clothes in spite of his useless partner, who is full of fail. And fail he did!

In what was a Project Runway first, Ra’mon was given the win and Mitchell was auf’d. Mitchell should have been out last week so we could have dear, odd Malvin with us once again, but I’ll take it. You have to be pretty awful to get kicked off for being part of a winning garment, but the idea that he was part of it is speculation at best, and as it turns out, doing nothing is actually worse than making an outfit for a tranny hooker of the sea.

Original post by Amanda Mull