Custom Design

Sometimes I just don’t get the French.

In a trademark infringement suit filed in Manhattan Federal Court, Louis Vuitton is going after the Korean Automobile manufacturer Hyundai for using its trademarked logo in a Superbowl commercial. The commercial briefly displays an LV Monogram basketball being tossed around in a random street hoops game.

The French fashion house argues that Hyundai committed infringement by displaying their iconic famous and incontestable logo in the commercial.

However, upon closer inspection, it is easy to recognize that the canvas is only made to resemble the LV print, it is not the true print that Louis Vuitton trademarked in 1932. The faux print was used as a visualization of expensive luxury that is easily recognizable by many and, if anything, only strengthens the awareness of the LV brand as a leading luxury manufaturer.

Keep in mind, would companies not kill to have the opportunity to score a commercial during one of the most watched annual television events worldwide? Not only do the slots cost millions but are also highly contested.

I am no expert on these legal matters, nor do I run a global multi-billion dollar fashion conglomerate, but it is my opinion that the efforts to protect the LV brand may just have gone a bit too far in this one.

We shall find out the court’s ruling soon. In the meanwhile, how do you feel as a consumer about this lawsuit?

Original post by Vlad Dusil

One of the hottest tickets at New York Fashion Week is for Proenza Schouler, which will be showing tonight. Proenza Schouler Bags have not only hit the scene but they have become highly sought after. The PS1 is now a part of many PurseBloggers handbag vocabulary.

While it will not include PS1’s, as the PS1 is not part of the runway show as they are separate from the seasonal bag collection, the handbags from the Fall/Winter 2010 Proenza Schouler show will be available on ProenzaSchouler.com for 24 following the show. Also, you can watch the show live tonight at 8 PM EST also at their website.

Check out the show tonight and make sure to check back to see if any of the runway bags are calling your name!

Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil

Scarlett Johansson can be seen as the face of Mango campaigns and now also has partnered with Mango to design a handbag which will benefit the victims of the Haiti earthquake. The simple tote shape is adorned with ancient cartography of Haiti and at the top of the bag has the message “Supporting the people of Haiti. Designed by Scarlett Johansson”.

About this collaboration Scarlett Johansson said: “I’m thrilled to be collaborating with Mango to promote conscious consumerism and to benefit Oxfam’s Haiti Earthquake Response Fund. By purchasing this bag, which I specially designed, you are helping to provide life saving assistance like clean water to the people of Haiti.”

Ninona Vila, Corporate PR Director said: “Given the terrible events that have taken place, MANGO wants to support the victims of the Haiti earthquake. For this reason, we want to offer our clients the chance to collaborate in this project, as there are many people who need help.”

We love to see well-known celebrities use their name and fame to help out others in need. The tote would be great to roll up and take on vacation or use everyday for a change of shoes, work accessories, or take to the market. Expect the handbag to hit Mango stores worldwide in March. Part of the profits will be donated to NGO Oxfam International.

What do you think about this collaboration?

[story and photo via Nitro:licious]

Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil

One of our favorite handbag styles at the moment, the Proenza Schouler P̿, is now available on their website. This bag has continued to catch our attention, with its schoolgirl appeal and masculine yet ladylike vibe. I will continue to applaud the boys behind PS, who have made Proenza Schouler bags become part of our handbag vocabulary.

In December we first got news that Proenza Schouler would open up their online sales and were selling web exclusives. After we posted this, all of you helped sell out their limited edition wallets.

Starting today, February 1st 2010, Proenza Schouler will be selling their namesake PS1 bag online. There will be a variety of colors, styles and sizes available. Expect to see the P̿ Pochette, along with the P̿ in Medium, Large, and Extra Large. Colors you will see over time include black, white, tobacco, midnight and smoke hued. And the materials will be their lux leather, python, and suede. While the bags will not be exclusive to the website, they are items that are not always readily available online. Continue to check back for more colors and styles in the upcoming months. I know I will continue to check back until I find the perfect P̿ bag for myself!

Shop Proenza Schouler online HERE!

Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil

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

When it came to realization that the levels of lead being used in children’s toys was off the charts, everyone became very aware of the toys they were buying. High lead levels have been found in other household products including paint and blinds as well. ABC broke the story that researches found extremely alarming levels of lead in some handbags from top retailers. This means it is time to be conscious of the handbags we are buying for other reasons that just the price tag.

For the most part, genuine leather bags are not the problem. It is the bags made with PVC, polyvinyl chloride, which may contain lead. Manufacturers find PVC useful when making a synthetic handbag, as it gives the bag pliability and can help brighten colors as it is used in pigment.

The Center for Environmental Health went to 100 top retailers, including Target, Macy’s, and WalMart to buy purses and have the bags tested for lead at an independent lab. They used two tests, one was to wipe the bag to see if lead would simply rub off and the other was testing the bag for overall lead content.

What they found was truly frightening.

In some of the bags they tested, they found levels 30 to 100 times higher than the federal limit for lead in children’s items. The problem for women buying bags is there is no federal limit for lead content on handbags, only children’s products and paint. So how could anyone know that their bag could be hazardous to their life and the people around them?

One of the major concerns is women who are wanting to become pregnant, are pregnant, and their children. Children are known to touch everything and put their hands in their mouths. And mom’s handbag is no exception. The CEH found that by simply touching one of these bags, it gave a level of lead higher than the state of California allows, unless the item carries a warning label for cancer and birth defects.

As of right now H&M, New York & Company, and two suppliers agreed to pull bags from their shelves in the state of California, where a lawsuit was filed. They have also agreed to inspect bags and products used closer in the future and educate about toxic health hazards.

Today, the CEH is working closely with 60 additional retailers hoping for a similar outcome. Their hope is that bags being put on the shelves are safe to everyone buying it, using it, or near it and that standards change.

Only problem for us right now is that we do not know exactly which bags from which retailers have high lead content. The upside of this story and research is to make us aware. We need to all be aware of how the products we use on a daily basis could be affecting our health and the health of those around us.

How do you feel about these news breaking? How, if at all, will this affect your shopping?

[story via ABC WorldWide News]

Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil

When it came to realization that the levels of lead being used in children’s toys was off the charts, everyone became very aware of the toys they were buying. High lead levels have been found in other household products including paint and blinds as well. ABC broke the story that researches found extremely alarming levels of lead in some handbags from top retailers. This means it is time to be conscious of the handbags we are buying for other reasons that just the price tag.

For the most part, genuine leather bags are not the problem. It is the bags made with PVC, polyvinyl chloride, which may contain lead. Manufacturers find PVC useful when making a synthetic handbag, as it gives the bag pliability and can help brighten colors as it is used in pigment.

The Center for Environmental Health went to 100 top retailers, including Target, Macy’s, and WalMart to buy purses and have the bags tested for lead at an independent lab. They used two tests, one was to wipe the bag to see if lead would simply rub off and the other was testing the bag for overall lead content.

What they found was truly frightening.

In some of the bags they tested, they found levels 30 to 100 times higher than the federal limit for lead in children’s items. The problem for women buying bags is there is no federal limit for lead content on handbags, only children’s products and paint. So how could anyone know that their bag could be hazardous to their life and the people around them?

One of the major concerns is women who are wanting to become pregnant, are pregnant, and their children. Children are known to touch everything and put their hands in their mouths. And mom’s handbag is no exception. The CEH found that by simply touching one of these bags, it gave a level of lead higher than the state of California allows, unless the item carries a warning label for cancer and birth defects.

As of right now H&M, New York & Company, and two suppliers agreed to pull bags from their shelves in the state of California, where a lawsuit was filed. They have also agreed to inspect bags and products used closer in the future and educate about toxic health hazards.

Today, the CEH is working closely with 60 additional retailers hoping for a similar outcome. Their hope is that bags being put on the shelves are safe to everyone buying it, using it, or near it and that standards change.

Only problem for us right now is that we do not know exactly which bags from which retailers have high lead content. The upside of this story and research is to make us aware. We need to all be aware of how the products we use on a daily basis could be affecting our health and the health of those around us.

How do you feel about these news breaking? How, if at all, will this affect your shopping?

[story via ABC WorldWide News]

Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil

Add this to the list of Things I Didn’t Know Science Cared About, I suppose.

According to UK retailer Debenhams, the weight of the average woman’s handbag, including its contents, has fallen from 7.69 pounds in 2007 to 3.31 pounds in 2009. I don’t know about anyone else, but my shoulders and back are certainly thankful for the dramatic change.

Everyone knows that no trend lasts forever, so when tiny actresses were seen with handbags bigger than some New York studio apartments in the middle of the last decade, we all knew that it was a matter of time until the Olsen look was so five minutes ago. Well, if handbag weight is any indication, that time is now. But are there possible explanations other than just the normal ebb and flow of fashion trends?

UK rag Daily Mail thinks that there might be. They want to tie all of this into our gadgets – iPhones weigh less than the combination of an old school iPod and that Motorola flip phone that you had back in 2007, so I suppose that you might save a few ounces there, but I’m just not buying it as an overall explanation. It’s not like we were all carrying enormous Zack Morris phones back in ‘07, it was only two years ago.

And not only are traditional phones still more popular than smartphones, despite the fact that it seems like everyone you know has a Blackberry or iPhone, but the rest of the stuff that a woman usually carries is pretty static. As far as I know, no one has figured out a digital makeup app yet. Apple, get on that. The article also mentions laptops, but I don’t know many women that carry a computer in their everyday bag. And even if they did, I would imagine that any decrease in average laptop size between 2007 and 2009 would be offset by the likely increased number of women that now carry these ever lighter, slimmer devices that didn’t carry them at all two years ago.

So, as they say on one of my favorite shows, myth: busted. I’m not buying the explanation that the Daily Mail is selling. There’s an important one that they may have overlooked, however, and that’s the weight of the materials used. Maybe, just maybe, the manufacturers are listening to the practical complaints of their customers. That’s not common in fashion, but it might have happened with our handbags.

Yesterday, I walked into Neiman Marcus in Atlanta, picked up a Chloe hobo and for the first time, didn’t feel myself begin to tip over under the sheer weight of the empty bag. The size itself was still big – maybe even “oversized” would be the correct word – but it wasn’t heavy. It wasn’t even close. And when we live in a world where we can’t count on CHLOE, of all brands, to put out bags that are all so heavy that they make my arms fall asleep, what can we count on?

Handbag weight is one of the most common complaints that I hear from bag lovers, even to the point where some designers have changed their materials in very obvious ways. For instance, the first few iterations of the famous Marc Jacobs Stam were lined in suede. People complained, and every season since then has had a cotton or linen lining. When I pick up a Stam in a store now, it’s noticeably lighter than the early version that I bought back in 2006.

Those things considered, it’s likely that a combination of size trends, material changes and maybe a few technological advances have lead to such a precipitous drop in bag weight. Whatever it is, it’s better for bag lovers, any way you slice it.

Article via The Daily Mail

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

Proenza Schouler has opened up its online gates to include e-shopping. With the start of this, they have also released exclusive items you can buy through the online shop. Right now the number of exclusives are small and include a leather wallet, key chain, and novelty bag. Our pick goes to the wallets, which cost $165 each. The wallets have a leather flap front with a snap closure and are available in 6 rich colors.

While the PS1 wallet is cool, it is the Proenza Schouler PS1 from the Spring 2010 accessories line that has my attention. The PS1 is the bag that made Proenza Schouler noticeable in the handbag world and continues to be the item that garners them attention. We have seen renditions in leather, python, and crocodile. This Spring version brings us a striped canvas body with leather trim. There is a preppy yet downtown vibe to this bag and I adore it.

While the online shop is small for now, it is a step into a direction that we like. Shop the online exclusives from Proenza Schouler HERE.

Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil