Recently in On The Rag Category

Thank you, Nichelle. Your support is much appreciated. Read article here.

We have received such overwhelming support from our readers and fellow bloggers and are so grateful to all of you! One of our earliest supporters, the great Manolo the Shoeblogger, has posted his thoughts on this matter.

"This is outrageous behavior, and as counter-productive as anything the Manolo has ever heard of. The P.R. person who sent these emails and her firm should be named and denounced publicly.

No blogger, no person, should ever have to tolerate this sort of abuse for giving his or her honest opinion about the shoddy product.

In fact, once this person and her firm are named, you may be certain that the Manolo will never, ever respond to any press release or email from this firm, and he would suggest that other fashion bloggers likewise boycott them, at least until the most public and groveling sort of apology is issued."

Read the entire article here.

By the way, the abuse continues. We asked them to stop emailing us when we sent them the Fed Ex tracking number with insurance for their bags but they responded with half a dozen more emails with comments like "You guys are total losers anyway, soccer moms who wish you are European". Does she mean we wish we are white, not Asian? We can not help our Anglo last names from our husbands. They then said their attorney will contact us for libel, for telling the truth of what happened? We sent the girl the original email from her, asking to join our giveaway and wanting to give us bags to keep for ourselves. She said she was confused by the 180 degree change of Kelly's attitude towards the bags (Kelly was actually really excited about them at first and responded to the PR firm as such but that was without seeing the bags up close) because in person the bags were not what we expected! Look, we have our taste. You have yours. Everyone is allowed to return things they do not like.

WE CAN NOT BE BOUGHT AND WILL NOT PRETEND TO LOVE A BAG JUST BECAUSE IT IS FREE OR TELL OUR READERS TO BUY IT.

The love from our publishing friends continue... Thanks, Lauren. Check out what Second City Style has to say. Read article here.

Kristopher, who is like a little sister to us (a bit wild and a bit naughty but that's the best kind of lil' sis right?) has put in her two cents on this matter. Read complete article here.

Fur bags are supposed to be "precious" and special, not some lame and plain hobo. I hate this shape for any bag and it is a ridiculous waste for a fur, although I am not sure what kind of fur this is, the leopard is printed and the price makes me want to say it is rabbit or the likes. And what about the leather corners? How disgusting is that? Fur is supposed to lush but here it is cut off unexpectedly in the corners and the fur just tufts over looking unfinished. It also makes the bag look like a headless stuffed animal. Wouldn't it be cuter or at least more congruous to just let the fur carry throughout? And for some reason this leopard print is really scary and scraggly - like an abandoned dirty animal, not soft and luxurious like something you want to own. I don't even want to get into the whole discussion about the use of fur here because on this bag it is a moot point, this bag is ugly and no one is going to buy it. Too bad the animal already died for this, maybe they can remake it into a vest for Fred and Barney (because Wilma and Betty certainly won't want anything to do with it). Neiman Marcus is doing their annual private sale today and I bet this will be on sale. Select styles from Gucci, Fendi, Chloe, Ferragamo and other designers not doing so well lately are 30% off (although I have seen a lot of Ferragamo Celtico bags around and they are not bad). Stop by Neimans or call your favorite sales associate for the details but it starts tonight. This fur is at Bergdorf Goodman for $2995.

We weren't going to do an editorial on this bag line but have received over a dozen crazy harassment emails from the PR girl representing them so we decided to put it out there so you can stay clear of this line of horribly made and very cheap bags. Kelly first received an email two months ago from Zina Eva's rep asking to participate in our monthly bag giveaway but after receiving the samples this weekend we decided the bags were not up to Bag Snob par and we couldn't possibly endorse it let alone give it to our readers. (a bag that looks cute and adorable in photos sometimes doesn't translate as well in person) So why didn't we like the bags? First of all, they smelled heavily of plastic and looked and felt like plastic (fake embossed snakeskin is the one they sent), the handles were also very flimsy and felt like plastic too. Seriously, you could get better bags at Target for $39.99. (Bag Snob note: they maintain their bags are made of leather but they smell and feel like plastic to us)

We promptly contacted them and told them we'd return the bags and will not be able to include them in our monthly giveaway but the PR girl turned nasty and started sending us harassment emails with racist overtones. Let's see, she accused us of using fake last names because our names are English/European yet we don't look European (Basically non-white people are not allowed to have European surnames according to this genius PR girl) and then she accused us of trying to scam them of $150 (wholesale price) bags?!?!??! How is it a scam if we didn't want to keep the hideous bags for our giveaway?

The false accusations are actually funny considering we buy Hermes birkins for a hobby and give away $2,000 bags on a regular basis (from real bag designers like Anya Hindmarch, Jimmy Choo, Devi Kroell, Sang A, Smythson, etc who have all been very pleased with our level of professionalism). Anyway, I actually feel sorry for Zina Eva as she has the worst PR firm on earth working for her. But not sorry enough to compromise the standards we have for ourselves and our readers so the bags are packed up and being shipped out tomorrow morning. I am also worried that if you, as a consumer, were to ever complain about a Zina Eva bag, would they harass you with a dozen of hate emails full of crazy racist remarks and general derogatory comments about your character JUST BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T LIKE THE BAG?

Kelly and I often receive flak for our honest reviews but it is why our readers trust us. British Vogue, London Daily Mail and other esteemed publications have written about the power of an endorsement from Bag Snob and that is not something we take lightly. So even if a second rate PR firm calls us a "Lowly Blog" and that blogs are useless (then why did they contact us to be featured in our sweepstakes and offer us the bags to give away? We never heard of Zina Eva prior to that email!) we will continue to do what we do best. Which is honest reviews of the ultimate accessory, The Handbag.

Hello, Mr. No-I-am-not-on-crack, how do you explain this? A furry clutch made to resemble a steam ship trunk with odd fake straps that aren't functional and then a functional turn lock closure hardware on top of that, not to be redundant, but for looks? Uh, did I mention that this thing is ridiculously hideous and ridiculous? Oh not yet? Well, this thing is ridiculously hideous and ridiculous. This is strips of mink, aka scraps, and python pieced together. Where is the python? Keep in mind, I said this bag is ridiculous. The python is in between the strips of mink. Mink is furry thus poofs over and covers up all signs of the python, but that aside, the strips, aka scraps, of python are so minuscule that it is totally useless. How about using the python trim on the good-for-nothing straps, at least it would give a purpose to them, even if the purpose is simply to allow us to see some python so that it adds some sort of design feature. Oh, sorry California residents, the undetectable remnants of python makes it unavailable to you. Boo hoo! Interested in taking a gander for kicks? It's at Saks for $2950.

I woke up this morning and went through my usual ritual of reading emails, publishing comments and checking out my favorite sites for the latest and greatest bags. As I sleepily went through the pages, this insanely ugly bag caught my eye and woke me up instantly. What am I looking at? Are those two dead skunks hanging from the bag? Is Fendi recycling road kill yet again? I enlarged the photo and realized with great relief it was not dead rats hanging from the bag but wool made to look like dead rats (not much better in my opinion). In addition, the geniuses at Fendi decided to place multi-colored fish scales in the middle of the bag, you know, just in case our senses have not been assaulted enough. I then looked at the price and that's when I went into serious shock. SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR WOOL SCRAP MADE TO LOOK LIKE ROADKILL AND A FEW PIECES OF LEATHER? Karl, maybe it's time to start eating again, when your belly was rounded and happy you gave us the Baguette. Now starving and angry, it is assaulting us with this abominable beast. A journalist from the Wall Street Journal recently asked me if the bag craze will ever end and I had replied "Absolutely not! Women will always love handbags." But not if they all start looking like this. In fact, if all bags became this appallingly gross, we'll have to do what Carine Roitfeld says she prefers to do, putting things in her pockets and not carry bags at all. Fendi Sequin and wool embellished mess $7,190 at Net-a-Porter.

(Hum to tune of Donny and Marie classic song) I'm a little bit Chanel, I'm a little bit Bottega, I'm the result of a lack of imagination and a little bit of hallucination. Seriously now, I expect a lot more from Marc Jacobs, the designer touted as boy genius of the fashion world. Just look at this mishmash of confusing details, it's almost as if "someone" took a little bit of "something" when they hallucinated this bag- not pointing fingers, really I am not! But woven leather with garish gold chains on a foot and half long bag? It reminds me of a sack of rice and not even as functional because you really couldn't carry rice in this now could you? Boy, we are not happy bag snobs lately. How do you expect us to be with bags like this shoved in our faces daily? As if the hideous design (or lack there of) is not enough, they stick a $3,000 price tag on it! (okay, I am exaggerating, it's $2850 but add shipping and handling or whatnot and you'll get pretty close to 3k.) Ugh! For that amount I can buy a REAL Chanel or a REAL Bottega and not some third rate knock off.
To buy and risk ridicule or just for a good laugh, Marc Jacobs Elsa woven leather bag available here. TGIF everyone, let's hope next week brings us an abundance of fabulous bags!

Yeah, they weren't kidding by "oversized", this thing is ridiculously huge!! But such is the trend these days and the fact that it is alligator just makes it all the more ostentatious. I have trouble with the practicality of carrying around such a giant clutch, I mean, I have a hard enough time with a normal size clutch because it requires me to dedicate an entire arm and hand to transporting it around, so one as big as this would require both arms and hands (as seen in the picture with the model)? This is not a cocktail party clutch, you will knock over the hors d’oeuvres tray and spill your martini for sure. So when do you use it? During the day? You lug this thing around with all your papers in it and it gets so heavy you have to cradle it both arms like a baby?!!? Is that chic and fancy? OK, size aside, I do like this clutch with the ruffled detail using the tail. The use of the large and small scale to create texture and interest is note worthy. It is also a limited edition of 10 exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman and each is numbered and signed by the designer. Kinda cool but not cool enough to make me want to look like a fool carrying this thing around. $7500 and takes 8 weeks to deliver because they are made to order (but if it's limited edition, why not just make the 10 up front? Or perhaps in the back of their mind they don't think even 10 people will buy this??) You can order through Bergdorf Goodman.