Custom Design

One thing that a lot of designers seem to have a very hard time doing is creating a bag that is both expensive-looking and covered in animal print. It’s not surprising since animal print is historically “tacky chic” at best, and at worst, just plain tacky. Getting past the initial “eww, is that zebra?” thought is a difficult sell for a lot of handbag customers in particular, since most people prefer their expensive bags to be neutral and timeless.

Somehow, though, the Roger Vivier Zebra Tote manages to look luxurious and chic in a traditional way, while still being boldly and obviously animal print. How did the designer pull it off? I have a theory, of course.

The folks at Vivier did two things very, very right with this bag: first, they kept the materials high-end. Most designers resort to non-leather materials when they want to make animal print because leather is difficult to dye in precise patterns. Choosing something like cotton canvas automatically downgrades the look, making the print look cheap by association. Instead of making that mistake, the designer used calfskin, giving the bag a richness that it would likely not have otherwise.

The second thing that the designer did correctly was not assume that simply using a pattern would be enough attention to detail. If the goal was to make something modern and minimalist, that would have been fine, but in this situation it probably wouldn’t cut it. Instead, the fine color variation in the dye makes the bag look well-crafted and beautifully wrought, increasing the style quotient exponentially. Vivier should teach classes in this sort of thing. Buy through Luisa Via Roma for $2451.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Lest we all had forgetten after seeing one too many soft, wonderful Valentino bags, Dolce & Gabbana has a stark reminder for us: ruffles aren’t easy, man. Not when leather is involved.

The key to successful leather ruffles is to make them so light and airy that you forget that what you’re looking at is a thick, hardy material out of which they also make car interiors. The illusion is what’s important, and if the designer can’t take the materials and make something greater than the sum of its parts, then the whole design doesn’t work. Sadly, that’s the situation we find ourselves in with the Dolce & Gabbana Miss Heather Shopper.

Dolce’s first mistake was their choice of leather. This bag’s material is pebbled and stiff, and in order to mimic the movement and fluidity of a softer, more ethereal fabric, they need to choose a softer, smoother leather. They were screwed from the beginning with this stuff.

And then there’s the shape of the ruffles themselves. They’re too straight and tight to be pleasing in a visual or tactile way, and the stiff and shiny finish makes them look cheap. The bag’s overall effect isn’t one of luxury or sumptuousness, and if they want to achieve that in the future, then perhaps they should take a page out of Valentino’s book (or hire a few of their accessories designers). Buy through Nordstrom for $1450.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Dolce & Gabbana maybe not have as rabid or dedicated a following as some handbag brands, but that doesn’t stop them from going confidently in the direction of their artistic vision season after season. As with any very specific point of view, the results are often mixed but they’re always very obviously Dolce & Gabbana.

The Dolce & Gabbana Miss Rouche Ruffled Shoulder Bag is the continuation of an idea that we first saw in Fall 2009. Those bags were slightly more manic and ruffle-covered, but this hobo dials things back just a bit and gets it right.

The beauty of this bag is really on the zoom-in, so I encourage you to take a trip over to Saks and play with their photo tools a bit. In these pictures the leather looks a bit thin, but on closer inspection, this bag looks like it would be soft and the wrinkled effect is feminine without being too girly. The same with the ruffles – they don’t come off as too theme-y or unkempt because the bag is fairly simple in shape. It looks stiff in the photos, but something tells me it would loosen right up with a little wear and sag nicely. Buy through Saks for $1450.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Is anyone else seeing an Hermes Bolide when they look at the Dolce & Gabbana Miss Brigette Dome Satchel? I definitely am.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing, since the Bolide is an elegant bag choice in its own right. But like all things Hermes, the Bolide can be prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, and having a slightly less expensive but still well-made option in a similar shape is not necessarily a bad thing.

Not that Hermes officially has some sort of monopoly on making bags that are this shape, but the resemblance to their products is a lot closer than it is to, say, the Louis Vuitton Alma. Particularly when you add in the clochette and the horizontal exterior pocket, which mirrors the external seaming on the Bolide.

Normally I’m not a fan of bags that remind me so precisely of other bags, but I think I may actually like this version more than the original, the more that I look at it. The choice of the smooth, slouchy leather is spot-on for creating a bag with the everyday sort of elegance for which the Bolide strives, and turning the external seam into a pocket is totally functional. Plus it’s lined in leopard-print, and that’s the kind of secret kick of attitude that I like. Buy through Saks for $1595.

Original post by Amanda Mull

I’ve got to say at least one nice thing about this bag: Dolce & Gabbana, I like your enthusiasm.

No, actually, I love it. Because the kind of chutzpah it takes to put together seven (that I can count) types of fuzzy animal print onto one bag is the kind of chutzpah that it takes to occasionally create a stinkin’ awesome bag. But at this point, ladies and gentlemen, I have but one caveat: the Dolce & Gabbana Miss Martini Flap Bag is not that bag.

Oddly enough, I think that what this bag suffers from the most is not that there are too many patterns, but that all of the patterns are too similar. Instead of creating contrast and visual interest, they all sort of meld together into one big tan animal print glob, and the result is decidedly “craft store.”

Not that it would have been any better had they added in, say, zebra print or snake print. This idea was more or less dead in the water from the get-go, but if it takes making a thousand ridiculous bags to finally get to one that’s genuinely great, then I’m okay with that. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Buy through Nordstrom for $1075.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Original post by ChicInspector@gmail.com (Chic Inspector)

I’ve been more than a little critical of Fendi for quite a while now, but between their Spring 2010 runway show earlier this week and the Fendi Calfhair and Sequin Shoulder Bag that we see here, I’ve got to give credit where credit is due: they’re finally doing some fantastically interesting things with their handbag line.

I’m sure this bag isn’t for everyone, but the kind of that takes to combine two divergent textures like calfhair and sequins in order to create a single pattern is exactly what we should all expect from our highest-echelon designers. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t (I, for one, think that it really does here), but without people willing to make something ridiculous, we’re never going to see any innovation.

And in general, this bag is just sort of fabulous. It’s sequin and calfhair zebra print, and despite the bizarreness of that description, it’s really well-done. They used several different sizes of sequins in order to achieve the effect, and it worked out fantastically. I would wear this bag in a heartbeat, even though I’m sure many people would wag their fingers at me for it. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $1800.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Finally: the Judith Leiber Sphere Clutch is a disco bag that really means it.

I’ve seen more than a few tiny, bling-y bags label themselves as “disco” in the past month or so, and none of them seem anywhere near as disco as this sparkly lil’ thing. This bag is Studio 54. It’s John Travolta in that white suit in Saturday Night Fever. This bag is really trying to make disco happen. And I just might let it.

I don’t think anything that I own, including my phone or my keys, would ever fit into this tiny orb, but I can wish, right? If I sailed around on a boat made of money, you best believe I’d buy it and give it a try, if only so I could hold it above my head and dance under it in public after four cocktails. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $2495.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Ever see a handbag you like, and then realize it has one thing so egregiously, terribly wrong with it that it almost makes you palpably upset? Like you were so close to finding a handbag oasis in the desert, and then it turns out that, by a single cruel twist of fate, that it was all just a mirage?

Yeah, I kind of feel like that about the Marc Jacobs Frame Wallet Sequined Purse.

This bag was so close to being the cute, 80s, glam rock evening bag that I so wanted it to be. I can almost taste it. But then it looks like someone stuck your grandmother’s mauve billfold wallet to the back of it, and it’s ruined.

Not only is it ruined, but it’s basically a bag mullet, but in reverse. The party is in the front, the business is in the back. And since that idea doesn’t work for hairstyles, I’m not sure why any designer would think that a similarly-structured bag is a good idea. Pry the wallet off the back, and I’m absolutely sold on the high-wattage sequin clutch that would be leftover. As it is, I wouldn’t touch this with a ten-foot pole. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $595.

Original post by Amanda Mull

It seems like all I had to do is complain that I was feeling a little blah about the Stam, and Marc Jacobs rose to the occasion. First we got the studded-yet-understated Marc Jacobs Stardust Stam, and now he’s brought us the not-at-all-understated Marc Jacobs New York Rocker Stam. Although I’m not sure that this sequined-n-shiny satchel is best suited to New York - in fact, I think it might be more at home in Las Vegas.

And I mean that in the nicest way possible - I love this bag so much that I could just drool all over it. The name of the last Stam I reviewed reminded me of Sin City, and now this; does anyone else think that maybe Marc should consider doing a glizty, glamorous Las Vegas-inspired collection? Sequins would be the perfect place to start, and I love the ones on this bag because they’re not as expected as sequin-covered bags usually are. They’re small enough that at a distance, they blend together to form a shimmery, shiny whole instead of a bag covered in sewn-on crap, and the silver, off-center, abstract pattern at the bottom gives the bag a modern edge that helps it avoid the grandma-bag pitfall of multitudinous sequins. Viva Las Vegas! Er, uh, New York! Buy through Saks for $1995.

Original post by Amanda Mull