American fans of British handbag line Mulberry can now shop the brand directly as the brand has finally launched a full functional ecommerce site for America complete with customer service and regional content. Since its debut in 2001, Mulberry.com has become the second highest grossing Mulberry store out of the 50 worldwide locations and we have no doubt that adding a U.S presence will help grow their presence.
The site will offer an extensive range of accessories like the Mabel, the Roxanne and the Bayswater which have become extremely popular. In celebration of the launch, Mulberry is also offering four shades of ostrich Bayswaters – in limited numbers and exclusively for U.S. customers.
Marc Jacobs may love his adopted hometown of Paris but the French have more than a few adopted influences thanks to their colonial past and Jacobs made good use of said influences for a very global Spring 2009 Louis Vuitton collection. The collection had a strong Asian influence with more than a little African making it a veritable post colonial melangé of la vie Francophone.
A golden bamboo backdrop, feathers, bangles, big necklaces, astounding earrings, warrior sandals and plenty of detailing made for a collection that gave us more, more and more. That said, there were plenty of well merchandised wearable basics for an astute fashion consumer. It is yet another collection of both editorial perspective and commercial appeal for Marc Jacobs. It plays well on the cross cultural reach of Louis Vuitton's history as a travel oriented brand while playing to Marc Jacob's strengths as a master of the mix and match.
Frida Giannini has a knack for accessories having designed handbags for Gucci long before she landed the top job as Creative Director, so it is with interest that we note what the strong collegiate feel of Gucci's Spring 2009 bags. "It" bags may not be as strong a force as in the past but Gucci sets the tone for handbag trends in many seasons. The two main styles that draw the eye are the shoulder slung book bag and the leather backpack. Prada relaunched its entire house on the strength of a nylon black backpack so its by no means an unprecdented style. Perhaps this is another marker of the Fall tendency at work in Milan, or maybe Frida just felt being able to lug around a few books and a laptop is a more modern way to look at handbags.
This wonderful bag is color blocked and a hybrid of two popular handbag shapes. For that reason, the tonal
Chloe Joan shoulder bag feels like a fresh design to us. In terms of the shape it's a mix between a bucket bag and a tote. It's a bucket bag in its cylindrical shape and cinched opening but tote-like in that the bottom of the bag has no perpendicular panel of leather. So it's bottomless bucket or some such thing. Anyway, we like it. We're also big fans of the color combination on the bag. We usually carry big, solid color bags and it can be inconvenient. Like, for instance, when your blouse is the same color it can give you a monochrome block-person look without warning. Having a bit of color on your handbag will help break up your look a bit. Net-a-Porter says the hardware is equestrian-inspired which didn't occur to us at first glance but they're right. Anything equestrian has long been across the board okay in Coutortureland, making this handbag next to perfect in our minds. Sigh, if only we didn't see the Forever 21 knock-off coming down the conveyor belt.
Karl Lagerfeld has launched his first bag collection under his own name. Manufactured in collaboration with the Accessory Network Group, the holiday/resort collection features a mostly black, white and beige palette with occasional pops of color (hazard-cone orange, midnight blue). ANG is also responsible for Vera Wang's bags and as much as we love a little tulle we admit this doesn't exactly scream prestige. But with wholesale prices from $250 for a clutch tp $1,510 for a shearling carry all we are guessing they are going for the big guns. And with little K logos woven into the design maybe the Kaiser can make them iconic.
Isabella Fiori was acquired by Fab Starpoint a licensed kids' accessories company. We don't quite see the connection between selling pop tart paraphernalia and luxury handbags but cash is king.
We are sad to hear that
now isn't the time for Nau with an homage to the brand from Eric Wilson.
Apparently natural is just as hard to achieve as perfection. In what is unlikely to be a surprise to anyone,
it is revealed that the Dove Real Beauty advertisements were in fact the product of photoshop
Ralph Rucci will be awarded with a National Design Award by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. With rabid fans and yet surprisingly little hype, Ralph Rucci is beloved by real fashion lovers everywhere and we couldn't be happier.
Koodos
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