February 2008 Archives

Gucci "Hearts" New York but sadly, it is an unrequited love. We first covered the happy story of this partnership last week. But since then, New York City's Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), who owns the trademark to I "heart symbol" New York, became a little ticked that PPR (who owns Gucci) did not get permission to use this logo. Uh, did they also hear that all the proceeds from this bag is going back to New York to the Playground Partners Central Park Improvement Program? What is the issue here really? It sounds to me like ego because not only is there no harm, this only benefits the city with cash and PR. And what sane person would fight to turn away cash and PR? This makes no sense. So, to be charitable, we first have to consult with our legal team? I mean, sure Gucci gets something out of this, they want to promote their new giant flagship store on 5th Ave but hello, doesn't that also benefit the city of New York? Decisively marking it as the fashion capital and the most important market for Gucci? Margaret Brennan of CNBC is covering the ongoing saga, read her continuing coverage.

One of the most fun things I do as a Bag Snob is visiting designers' showrooms to see new bags in person and meet the designers. We got to do a lot of that last week and we will share with everyone this week our adventures (you already saw our Oscar visit, seriously the highlight of my career). We have always been a huge fan of Devi Kroell (if you haven't noticed!) so she was definitely on our list of designers to see in NY. She is beautiful, graceful and so full of style, the room was almost too small to contain all of it (plus she is probably around 6 feet tall). She walked in with the large Roman in bone crocodile (not available for sale yet), totally to die for. She told us amazingly interesting things about her background, how and where she grew up and why she started a bag line. It's too much for one story so we will do a full profile on her later this week. For now, let's get to one of the bags we could not keep our eyes and hands off of.

As you know, I am obsessing and looking for the ultimate crocodile bag. The question is, how big of an investment do I want to make? Of course with an exotic, it has to be investment worthy and a true classic so of course Chanel came to mind along with the Hermes croc Birkin. I have been working with my Chanel SA for a while now so when this Chanel white alligator flap classic came across my shopping ventures, I had to stop and think, but only for about 2 seconds. This bag has 334 diamonds totaling 3.56 carats, set in 18-carat white gold. I'm sorry, I want my jewelry to be jewelry and my bags to be bags. I do not see the benefit of combining the two. It is $261,000, a diamond croc birkin is only $150,000, although in the after market, a 30cm black shiny crocodile Birkin with pave diamond metalware containing 12 carats of diamonds for £110,000 just came my way (so in US dollars it is approximately $220,000). If I went to my diamond dealer downtown, who gets his stones directly from Antwerp, I could, for example get a 8 carat emerald cut, flawless, D color for $200,000. And of course who wouldn't want one giant rock instead of 334 tiny ones that cost the same? Well, you get the bag with the $261,000 investment, of course. But the bag itself is not worth $61,000. And 334 diamonds totally 3.56 carats is certainly not worth $200,000.

We started Bag Snob two and a half years ago and are blown away by the strides taken by the fashion blogging industry; from Fashion week invitations to showroom visits, designers are now aware of the positive influence of fashion blogs and reaching out to us. Kelly and I were invited to Oscar de la Renta's showroom yesterday to preview his latest bag collection, we were told Oscar would join us and we just about fainted- how many people can say they hung out at Oscar de la Renta's showroom (and his private workroom loft, I was told most people do not get access up there!) with OSCAR himself!?!? We spent the first part of our visit playing with the new bags (THE strongest bag collection of the season-I will have more details on the fabulous Shagreen Goya bag I am carrying in the photo) and the Fall '08 RTW collection, not only did I touch and feel all the samples, I was able to try them on! (most fit me perfectly, which means the 6' tall models are a size 0!?!?) It was like playing dress up in your mother's closet, except every item is an Oscar de la Renta masterpiece. The clothes were even more beautiful in person, the details in the stitching, beading, and embroidery were absolutely exquisite and extraordinary. Oscar applies the same meticulous haute couture detailing to his ready-to-wear as he did during his years as the Director of Pierre Balmain couture. From the runway we saw gold leafing, in person, the gold leafs are actually hand painted feathers!

I barely made it to the tents in time for the Vera Wang show this morning, a huge fire shut down 3rd Ave and traffic was horrendous. I was totally panicked because not only is Vera our favorite Chinese-American designer but my friend Sasha (whose stepmother was an editor at Vogue with Vera and a close family friend of hers) promised to take me backstage to meet her! I managed to get to my seat at 10:30, just in time as the plastic runners were being removed from the runway.

Kelly went back to LA so I am running around New York without my partner in crime. It's not as fun to attend the shows alone, there is no one to ooooooooooh or aaaaaaaaaah with and of course going to bag showrooms alone is no fun either because we can't discuss and dissect the bags together afterwards. We always look forward to seeing Michael Kors' bags though- together or not- because regardless of whether or not we approve, we always find them interesting. Michael Kors went all classic for Fall '08 bags yesterday, you can't go wrong playing it safe! The clutches with the hand holder is present again but this time matching leather straps take the stage instead of Rolex inspired chains, we like this detail because it makes carrying a clutch so much easier. Lots of luxe skins were also the focus, frame bags in rich crocodile and soft ostrich will certainly be a hit with the luncheon social crowd.

We saw a lot of great new bags this week are working on these exciting stories for next week (just got back to LA from NYC and need a little recovery time). In the meantime, something new for Spring Summer delivery that is not quite as mind blowing but is still interesting and nice. It has been a while since Donna Karan bags have been on our radar, honestly because they have been so unremarkably bad, as in, they are bad but not bad enough for us to bother. So how surprised was I to find the new Spring/Summer collection to be so appealing? They have really rehauled their bag line and hired some young inspired designer to take over the department (although I have no research saying as much, it’s pure conjecture). I say that because these scrunched up clutches are super adorable yet incredibly sophisticated and chic. The design is out of the box and new. I have not seen this in person, they don’t delivery until July, so there could be some major flaw – like you have to untie the ribbons to open and know how to do nautical knots to get it back looking like this but as far as I can tell it is not the case, and one thing Donna Karan is known for is usability and practicality. I like the bigger clutch much more, it has the right scale for the shape and looks less busy with the scrunching and the ties, but I love the red, it is such a big color this season and I’m looking forward to adding boldness to hot weather (I’m just looking forward to hot weather, please stop raining!!!). The retail will be around $1295 but official prices have not been released. I will update with exact info when it is available.

We were on our way to visit a bag designer today when it started raining. I cursed myself for not bringing an umbrella and told Kelly so. This prompted her to start a tirade about Rihanna's umbrellas inspired by her popular hit, Umbrella. We laughed for 10 minutes about how weird it was to manufacture umbrellas for sale just because you have a hit single called "Umbrella". So what's next, will Gwen Stefani start selling bananas? After returning from our meetings tonight I saw that not only is Rihanna going to make umbrellas, she's got a bag named after her too, the Rihanna bag by Marc Jacobs. Which then prompted me to another question that we've been pondering, can a celeb really sell anything? All things aside, this bag is not bad, it is modern and fresh though I am not sure how functional the small handles are for such a large bag. The alternative shoulder chain is also a bit too thin for the proportions of this large bag but other than that, I do not have a problem with the bag itself. I love the light metallic crackled leather, it is youthfully chic and edgy and the large front flap concealing a roomy pocket is quite useful but it's the simple lines of the bag that appeals to me most. $2,075, buy Marc Jacobs Handbags here.

So, what do you think? Would you buy a Rhianna umbrella or bananas from Gwen Stefani?