Designer Handbags

Recently I’ve become quite the world traveler. Jetting within the States or all over Europe. Hey, I’m not going to complain. I love it. But what I do know is when you have a short weekend get-a-way or just a short over night trip, you need the perfect little bag to hold an outfit or two and some other “stuff”. It always seems so hard to find a cute and easy travel bag. For a while I toted a Juicy Couture Bowling Bag as my carry on on airplanes or on short weekend trips, but after getting so much grief from my brothers I began buying far too many oversized bags and simultaneously began my search for cute and practical over-nighters. This is why I am lovin’ this Escada Travel Bag I just found.

Just blame it on my being blonde but I was not fully aware that Escada was big into handbag making. Actually, I’m not that air-headed, because they are not. But they are growing on their handbag endeavor and I am digging it. This travel bag holds everything you may need for your journey and can easily fit under the seat in front of you (for you frequent flyers like myself out there). What I find to be really cool is how this unique bag can be rolled up so that it takes up little space when it’s not needed for traveling. Kind of looks like a yoga or Pilates mat. Which reminds me, I need to get back into my Pilates classes. Ok let’s leave tangents out of this. Anyhow, the Escada Travel Bag is available exclusively from the E-SHOP, in dark-brown canvas with a pink soft leather strap.

Unfortunately the site does not offer more of an explanation with details about the material and size and such, but I am just going by looks and brand and thinking it would be worth the $ 204.06 (price for shipping to the US) on the Escada E-Shop.

Another pearl that we stumbled upon in the Bal Harbour Gucci store was the Gucci Medium Hobo that had just been released to the public eye and isn’t even available on their official site yet. The shape accords the pictured fuchsia ostrich hobo, the material was different. Its leather was entirely covered with their new horsebit emboss and came in either a darker brown shade or more of a burgundy red. Completed was the gorgeous $1080 hobo with single strap, zip-top closure, bamboo ring details, bamboo ornament zipper pull, embossed Gucci script logo on strap, studs, and an inside zip pocket. Megs fell in love immediately, but had to pull out of a possible impulse buy once reality settled back in. We will try to hunt down a picture of the gorgeous leather and report on it later. In the meanwhile, I would really recommend the pictured Gucci Ostrich Hobo. The bag is currently on sale from almost $4k down to $2,300 and available directly through Gucci. I got a little touchy with the bag and was positively surprised about the supple and soft appeal of the quality ostrich leather. If you dig pink and have a thing for feathered bird leather, grab it while it’s hot!

We continued our excursion through Bal Harbour Shops, and obviously the Gucci store had to be one of our stops as well. It had appeared to us on several earlier occasions that employees of exclusive stores didn’t really seem to be too eager to consult a couple in the mid-20s (as opposed to the usual clientele of the older 40+ stash that usually seems to be roaming their grounds) about their newest and hottest items. We decided to give another approach a try. Megs’ mom was kind enough to let her daughter sport her horsebit hobo that she’s gotten a few weeks ago, and let me tell you — the store experience was slightly different. Let’s just say that Gucci does honor their recurring customer base. We did spend a good hour in there and we have particularly three bags in mind that require coverage today.

As I mentioned last night, BH stores enjoy the presence of special limited items that others around the country just have to miss out on. One of these stores was Gucci and the item in focus was the Gucci Crocodile and Ostrich Patchwork Bag. It was showcased in its own window on the side of the store all by itself and was just glaring at us with handcrafted details and superb materials. The friendly salesman (whose name I can’t recall, I’ll dig up his biz card later) brought it out for us to inspect — in my opinion the best $22,700 spent *if* you have them to spend on a bag. The blonde crocodile and ostrich patchwork, along with the bamboo detail and the gold hardware on the strap make the bag’s bite match the bark. Fantastic! Talking about exclusivity, there are only 10 (read: ten) of these made worldwide, and we got to appreciate it in its gorgeous entirety. The picture I pulled off the Gucci page shows the right bag — however, the strap on the one that we saw was much longer than the one depited here. Personally, it was my first time getting touchy and feely with a $20k+ bag, but I do realize where the price tag comes from. The stitching was handcrafted with out-of-this-world perfection and the materials just felt so right. If you are a collector or someone who enjoys highly exclusive shoulder bags, you may want to give this creation a try.

I just realized last night while exercising furiously in a 30-head spinning session for 2 hours that we have totally ignored sports bags thus far. How irresponsible of us! I am sure lots of you femmes exercise regularly in one way or another, and how lame would it be to carry your sporting goods in some ol’ stinky backpack if you can do tote it in style? Exactly.

I did some searching and stumbled across the Puma Quilted Sports Bag. Awesome stuff! The dome-shaped quilted, synthetic leather sports bag comes in either shiny white or limelight shades and impresses with its versatility. Gym bag, carry-on for travel or just casual weekender, this spacious bag does it all. A two-way zipper opens the main compartment widely, giving easy access to its innards. The 11″ wide x 8″ deep x 11 1/2″ high sports bag goes for $66 through Zappos.com.

Growing up in Florida I have seen my fare share of alligators. They even ate my next door neighbors dog, “Fluffy”. Kind of funny, not the death of a dog part, but the fact that a gator ate a dog named “Fluffy”. Anyhow, I never understood the big deal with gator or croc skin, only because whenever I saw a gator it was covered in algae and always so damned scary. But in the fashion world, croc and gator ski is a coveted good.

This is where Tod’s Genuine Crocodile Handbag makes it’s mark. Now there are some things I like about the bag, and some things that I do not like so much about the bag. First of all I love the shape. This bag is a functional satchel with inside zip closure. I also love the outside magnetic closure and the Tod’s logo on front. I bet you realize I am so skipping over the major part. But I just can not make myself like how it looks. It is true the bag is made of 100% genuine crocodile leather, but the look just isn’t me. What I can appreciate about it is the impeccable craftsmanship, but not the material so much itself. I enjoy croc skin on bags, but not the entire bag. Also too, I really believe I, Bloggin’ Queen Megs, could go to the outback,

wrestle and kill a croc, and make this bag for you for less than the *discounted* price of $2,999.99 from the original $8,500 at SmartBargains.

As we reported over a month ago, Takashi Murakami brought his exuberant art to Louis Vuitton with the release of their limited Monogram Panda series. Availability for the US had been very limited thus far, but finally you can get your hands on one of those rather extravagant LV creations. For $585, you can grab the LV Monogram Panda Trotteur, for example (left). The bag features the Monogram Panda canvas with natural cowhide trim and golden metal hardware, and an adjustable leather shoulder/cross-body strap. The leather corners and bottom are reinforced for long life span. A smaller version of the Panda’ized classic Monogram is the Louis Vuitton Monogram Panda Pochette Accessoires for $345 (link). Featuring the same materials, this pochette sports a removable leather strap with 5″ drop which can be linked to the D-ring found in many Louis Vuitton accessories. Both available now through eLuxury.com.

I’m sure you’ve been taught about the early ancestors of the modern homo sapiens sapiens either in biology or later by watching the Discovery Channel. I’m sure also remember from Kubrick’s 2001 the 35 minute intro where the ape people eventually discovered the true functionality of large and heavy animal bones - to beat the others to pulp. There is a point that I am trying to make, so bear with me. You see, sometimes there is just that one bag that I can imagine awakens any female’s primal instincts, specifically the most basic of them all - gaining the edge over the next woman and showing her who’s the boss! Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor’s.? Screw the bitch, gimme my bag. Beat it for what it’s worth! Either way, my point is that I can see many of you ladies just going ape sh*t over the Gucci Logo Weave Shoulder Bag. Yes, this is the bag that makes you disregard potential jail time!

Expensive, shiny, bamboo, gold, Gucci. Held in tan, brown and gold, this Gucci shoulder bag features the classic Gucci logo-weave canvas with leather accents and magnetic snap closure. A large bamboo shaped ring adornes the front, leather detailing appears in front and back and the double handle, gold-toned bamboo shaped chains measure approximately 15½’’ in length. Dimensions: 13′’ wide x 8′’ tall x 1′’ base depth. Price: 2,239 dollar American. Where: BlueFly.com.

Disclaimer: No females, umbrellas or boars were hurt during the making of this blog post.