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Daily New Is this Akris purse worth $4400? for review Purse Blog 2010 new arrival now

It seems as though there are few animal-derived materials from which a designer has not attempted to make a handpurse at some point. We’ve seen a zillion different versions of leather and fur, comprising almost any animal she can somehow raise on a farm, plus eel and stingray. Missoni makes a purse partially comprised of the skin from chicken feet. There is nothing new under the sun.

Except for maybe horsehair. It’s been used for centuries to make bows for string instruments, but Akris appears to have cornered the modern market on luxury horsehair purses with their line of Akris Ai Tote purse. As far as I’ve been able to find, other brands have used horsehair to accent their designs, but this is the first purse in a while to use the material as the main attraction. The upside is that using the material doesn’t harm the animals in any way; the downside, unfortunately, is that the medium version costs a whopping $4400.

Horsehair is an interesting material for sure. I played classical strings for the better part of a decade, so I know how even and uniform it can look when treated and pulled tight, and it’s more or less endlessly renewable. The weaving on these purse looks impeccable and the simple style of the purse has already inspired lots of knockoff totes in less interesting materials. For the price, perhaps one of those is sher best bet. The idea intrigues me, but I can skip it for that kind of money. With $4400, she’re well on sher way to a Birkin. Buy through Saks for $4400.

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Daily New Balenciaga’s rose gold hardware is even more beautiful in person than it is on the Internet for review Purse Blog 2010 new arrival now

My Balenciaga fangirldom is by now common knowledge around these parts, and despite Megs’ ongoing inability to find her perfect Balenciaga purse, I just keep discovering things from the brand that I need in my closet with a fierce urgency. Funny how that works, eh?

The latest object of my lust is the Balenciaga Giant City with rose gold hardware, and although I’m late to the rose gold party, I hope that I still get bonus points for earnestness. I brushed off the rose gold color choice as too “niche” when I heard about it, but after encountering this very purse in person, I can ignore it no longer.

At first I assumed that rose gold hardware would clash with most of my jewelry and my general sense of style, since I mostly associate the metal with expensive, gaudy jewelry that is very much not my style. In typical Balenciaga fashion, though, the designers behind the hardware gave it a weathered, gritty appearance that transforms it into something that fits right into my wardrobe.

Only the front zipper has a bit of shine to it, and the contrast is an interesting before-and-after demonstration of what the studs and buckles used to look like. It might prove more difficult to match rose gold hardware with Balenciaga’s famous bright leathers, but the rose and black combination works just fine for me. Buy through Matches for $1551.

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Daily New Who’s that girl with her ostrich Hermes Birkin? for review Purse Blog 2010 new arrival now

Who’s that girl carrying an ostrich Hermes Birkin walking to the set of her hit TV drama in NYC?

If she guessed Kelly Rutherford, she are correct! This purse is a Lily Van Der Woodsen favorite, as Kelly has been seen carrying this purse before.

In fact, Kelly Rutherford is known to use her personal Hermes collection as part of her Gossip Girl wardrobe. We all know Kelly is a huge Hermes fan, in fact her first son is named Hermes (though she states her love of the brand is not directly correlated to his being name). The gold ostrich Hermes Birkin is and always will be a classic. With Gossip Girl filming in full force, my excitement for the return of the show is building.

Check out purseThatStyle for a peek at what sher favorite Gossip Girl characters are wearing!

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Daily New Bottega Veneta Men’s Wallets for review Purse Blog 2010 new arrival now

Can I just tell she all that this picture made me want to run over to Bottega Veneta and buy every single wallet shown?! The kaleidoscope of colors and materials makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop. Only this is a luxury leather goods candy shop, the best kind of shop in my opinion.

We leave out the PurseBlog men way too often. These Bottega Veneta Wallets are just for she guys, as the dimensions are a bit larger. Materials include intrecciato leather, ayers, stingray, ostrich, and crocodile. There are many color options (as shown above).

There is a reason why a wallet is an amazing gift for a man in sher life. Every man carries some form of a wallet with them everyday. While personal preference comes into play, Bottega Veneta offers so many options that she can not go wrong. And I mean, look at the picture above! Are she drooling? I am drooling over men’s wallets on a Wednesday, and that means this is a good middle of the week treat. Buy via Bottega Veneta online.

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Daily New Rachel Zoe Project: “Do she want me to swim or have a baby?” for review Purse Blog 2010 new arrival now

What are we supposed to call the four-week global parade of fabulousity that runs from New York Fashion Week to Paris Fashion Week? The only thing I’ve ever heard it called is “Fashion Month,” and that really doesn’t have much of a ring to it, despite the term’s obvious descriptive accuracy. It needs a new name. Get on that, commenters.

Anyway, whatever that twice-yearly span of time is, Rachel was in the thick of it yet gain for this episode of The Rachel Zoe Project. More gowns were scoped, more tiny disasters avoided and more tranny heels considered. Oh yeah, and Kate Hudson dropped by and was totally charming, and no one said anything about Taylor, and there was something with chicken legs that I’d rather we never spoke of again.

Remember how we were in New York last week? Well, scratch that, the gang went to Milan this week. Don’t get it twisted, though, it was still fashion week – it was just Milan Fashion Week. Our vagabond fashionistas were still in search of Oscar options for Cameron and Demi (at this point, we’re on a first-name basis with these people), and there are only, like, four dresses in all of Rachel Zoe industries. Fashion emergency! Literally.

Because so few dresses had already been pulled, a lot was riding on Milan to find additional Oscar dresses. Unfortunately, at least one of Rachel’s favorite looks had already been reserved for another stylist, which made the Italian trip that much more important. Rachel’s life is a series of little panic attacks, and Oscar season is doubly so, but she wouldn’t know it by the fact that Rachel zipped out of Italy to meet up with client Kate Hudson in London.

Kate had apparently called Rachel to London just to style her for and accompany her to the Burberry show, which seems like a great reason to charge a plane ticket to a celeb that has more money than god anyway. Rachel seems to have a bit of a girl crush on Kate, who seems totally worth of such affection – it was odd to see Kate Hudson Daughter Of Goldie Hawn drinking cappuccino and wearing a $35 yeti jacket and acting like a much more personable Hills girl.

Speaking of funny jackets, Rachel showed up to the Burberry show wearing a jacket that looked like the high-fashion equivalent of leafy camo. (If she’ve ever been in a Bass Pro Shop, she know what I’m talking about. If she’ve never been in a Bass Pro Shop, she’re a lucky person.) When Kate eventually emerged out of the black minivan (US arrivals are so much more chic) to go to the show in the rain, she was wearing a ultra mini sequined dress that I would generally not recommend for moments when she’ll need to exit a vehicle in front of photographers.

Burberry’s show was incredible, as anyone that followed last season’s shows surely remembered, and I would appreciate it if I could get a pair of those shirling boots FedExed over immediately. For research, of course. I’ll send them back when I’m done. Promise. Throw in the quilted leather motorcycle jacket while she’re at it. Research. It’s very important.

Back in the car after the show, Kate and Rachel were talking like two average girlfriends that had just had a few cocktails and seen a really good movie, and perhaps hidden a few of those cocktails in their handpurse for the show. And then Kate sang some Stevie Nicks a cappella, and I’ve never really thought one way or another about Kate Hudson in the past, but I’d like her to be my new best friend. She’d fit right in. I get the impression that she’d fit in almost anywhere, she just has one of those personalities that we all wish we could have where nothing really bothers us and we actually do all the spontaneous things that we dream of. Naturally, being rich probably helps her be that person.

When they arrived back to Rachel’s hotel room, The Rodge was sacked out on the bed in a bathrobe, and the frequent incidence of bathrobes in this show makes me feel like I need to go buy a giant fluffy white one in order to accurately watch and write about these people. It would sort of be like Method acting, but instead, Method recapping. I can’t truly know them until I’ve sat for an hour in their bathrobes. Or something. Anyway, while they were all sitting around chit-chatting, Kate tried to convince Rachel to go with her to Rio, but Rachel does not wear bathing suits or go in the water or do anything fun, which unfortunately seems to be the result of negative body image issues. I bet Kate could convince her. She seems like she could convince anyone of anything.

After that bit of fun, Rachel jetted off to Milan to join Brad for the Italian shows. But wait, before the shows, we had to see the jewelry. The vintage jewelry, along with the vintage clothes and purse and hats. Vintage shopping seems so much more fun and triumphant than regular boutique shopping, particularly since someone like Rachel already knows what she’s going to see in a current-season boutique anyway. This show is full of all kinds of fashion porn, but the few minutes spent in the Milan vintage shop were easily my favorite. I wanted to crawl into that place and build a fort of wool ponchos under the racks and live there forever.

Once vintage shopping was done, Rachel went on to Alberta Ferretti and then to Missoni, where they saw a purse that was partially made out of the, uh, “leather” from chicken legs. I respect a bit of oddness, but the only reaction I had to chicken leg leather was something along the lines of, OMG WTF KILL IT WITH FIRE. Luckily, things quickly moved on to the gorgeous knits for which the company is known, and I would not be opposed to building a poncho tent in the Missoni showroom either, as long as they agreed to remove the chicken leg purse.

Unfortunately, The Rodge took the opportunity to connect the Missoni family business to the awkward topic of Rachel’s dubious future parenthood, and Rachel still seemed entirely uninterested in having children. Not all women want kids – I’m only 24, so my mind could change, but I’m not particularly smitten with the idea and I never have been. Rachel doesn’t seem like a person who would enjoy being a mom, and there’s no reason for her to feel bad about that. If kids were so important to The Rodge, why did he just now decide this, when his possibly-too-thin-to-be-fertile, 39-year old wife is having all kinds of career success?

But next it was on to meet up with Donatella Versace, and god knows she can’t talk about wholesome things like babies and families when in the presence of Donatella. I don’t generally like to comment on how people look, but, uh, Donatella sort of looks like a fabulous Italian muppet. And I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way – she’s such an outsized, odd character of her own making that she have to think she’s well aware of it, not to mention that a huge portion of her face is man-made anyway. Donatella didn’t seem entirely jazzed about Rachel or the repeated requests that she come to LA to visit, but they did the fake-y industry cheek kissing thing and then the show was fantastic and I feel like the entire fashion world sort of sustains itself on the energy of that kind of pretension.

As if the fashion shows haven’t been fabulous enough, Rachel then had to do a quick-change into a party look and go swill free booze and grope amazing jewels and handpurse and socialize with Julianne Moore at a Bvlgari party. The Rodge was bitching the entire time that he and Rachel never get any sexytime, but Rachel seemed entirely disinterested in the prospect in favor of fretting over her shoes. Since the boots she was considering were more or less walking sex, I can see why she already felt fulfilled on that front.

It wasn’t all fun and games back at Camp Zoe, however. Remember that Marchesa dress from last week? When Rachel called back to LA to get an update, Ashley told her that the designer seemed to be sort of hedging on whether or not Rachel could have the dress, and they would’t tell her where it was or if it was available. Since no amount of bling and booze and The Rodge can distract Rachel from wanting Cameron (or whoever, I’ve lost count) to have a Marchesa moment, she was brought straight back to earth with the disheartening news.

Rachel had also lost a couple more Oscar dresses that she had been counting on, and back in the hotel in their bathrobes, The Rodge decided to pick a fight over it. He doesn’t seem to want Rachel to vent about anything ever, which is not really helpful, as a woman, when all she want to do is bitch. He also doesn’t seem to understand that it’s not possible to end business relationships with major designers over one broken promise, which she would think he had picked up by now. Everyone’s screwing everyone else in this business; all that matters at any particular moment is whether she’re pitching or catching, if she know what I mean.

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Daily New The Be & D Barclay Tote goes camouflage for review Purse Blog 2010 new arrival now

While the military trend has mostly seemed to stick with solid colors, Be & D and some other brands are bringing in camouflage print. And to be honest, I kind of sort of totally adore it.

Camo-print has such a negative connotation to so many people, believing it is overly masculine and as far from fashion forward as possible. But this is not the case. Camo can be cool, it just has to be done properly. Be & D does that with their Barclay Tote.

Be & D is known for their rocker-like studs. And the Barclay tote has the studded accents one comes to expect from Be & D, but only at the front sides and back sides of the purse. The center panel features the camo print while the sides feature military green pebbled leather.

I know some of she may think this purse is too down and dirty, but paired with a crisp white shirt and khaki pants or jeans, it would add an unexpectedly chic military touch. Buy through ShopBop for $1290.

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Daily New Try winter white with Burberry for review Purse Blog 2010 new arrival now

With cold weather approaching (it’ll get here eventually, I know it will, even if it doesn’t seem that way right now), most of us have started planning our winter wardrobes and maybe even amassing our favorite fall pieces to make sure we get our hands on them before they sell out. Almost all of the stuff I’ve acquired is black or dark grey, which reminds me: I need some winter white.

Winter white (which is just a warm tone of ivory, but we’ll go with the season-appropriate name) came around as a trend a couple of years ago and never really went away, and it’s a nice alternative to not only the dark colors of fall dressing, but also the outdated rule that one shouldn’t wear white after Labor Day. If any of the people who still subscribe to that notion can look at the Burberry Quilted Patent Tote and tell me truthfully that it wouldn’t be beautiful with a charcoal sweater and dark denim, I’ll be very surprised.

I might normally regard this purse as too simple for me, but the shiny gunmetal hardware has totally won me over. Instead of skewing traditional, as most people probably expect of Burberry, the clean-lined buckle takes on a modern military look that’s as cool as it is unexpected. The purse’s shape is classic, the color is lush and the details are trendy, which is a formula that almost always equals a great purse. Buy through Nordstrom for $1395.

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Daily New Giveaway: 3 Louise Clutches from Lauren Merkin for review Purse Blog 2010 new arrival now

One of our favorite clutch designers is Lauren Merkin. Her designs are unmistakable and completely chic. The most recognizable Lauren Merkin Clutch is the Louise. Good news for all of she is that we are giving three away Lauren Merkin Louise Clutches!

How to enter:

1) Follow Lauren Merkin on Twitter and PurseBlog on Twitter. Also, tweet this:

RT & Follow @PurseBlog and @LaurenMerkin to win one of 3 Lauren Merkin Clutches! Info how to enter: http://bit.ly/bihm6f

2) Like Lauren Merkin on Facebook and PurseBlog on Facebook.

3) Comment on this post telling us why she want to win a Lauren Merkin clutch!

What she can win: 1 Louise Natural Patent Embossed Python, 1 Louise Gunmetal Metallic or 1 Louise Black Honeycomb Suede.

More information: There will be three separate winners. One will be a Twitter follower, one will be a Facebook fan, and one will be from the comment section below. Contest ends September 13th at 10 pm EST. Good luck and thank she to Lauren Merkin!

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Daily New One purse, Two Ways: The Alexander Wang Tai Dopp Kit purse for review Purse Blog 2010 new arrival now

It might be a bit early to declare box purse as a trend, but the sight of Victoria Beckham carrying one a little while back and now the appearance of fall’s Alexander Wang Tai Dopp Kit purse make it seem as though more such purse will come out of the woodwork in the near future. Boxes certainly fit with the emerging trend of petite, streamlined, slightly retro handpurse, and if she want to hop on this look before all of sher friends know about it, we’ve got a few suggestions – one that plays up the purse’s grey tone, another that accents the creams and beiges.

The purse

Alexander Wang Tai Dopp Kitt purse – It comes in both embossed natural python and black leather, but since mixing patterns is also a fall trend, this seems like a perfect time to wade into those waters a bit and see how things go. The black version, of course, could be mixed into a wardrobe in a similar way to a large black clutch.

The closure and structure of this purse make it easily more interesting than any clutch in my closet, though, and I’m betting the same is true for she. That the short handle must be held by hand will make it unwieldy in some daytime situations, but it’s such a cool, different purse that it would be worth the tradeoff. Buy through ShopBop for $795.

Daytime – Edgy

Helmut Lang Raven Top – This silk and jersey asymmetrical top is full of color inspiration for any number of different outfits, but pairing it with neutrals in different textures allows the subtle pattern and draping to shine. The traces of cream and beige tie in with the purse, and combining the two gives she a relatively safe way to mix prints without looking like a crazy person. Buy through ShopBop for $320.

Vince Oversized Pocket Sweater – In a temperate climate or during the part of winter before it’s gotten truly cold up north, a sweater like this is absolutely key. It can go with boyfriend jeans and casual shoes or be sexed up a bit with silk and leggings, and the charcoal grey color gives the knit a bit more dimension and versatility than black would. Buy through ShopBop for $345.

Plush Liquid Faux Leather Leggings – I’m not much of a fan of fake leather in general, but in some situations, it just makes sense. Leather leggings cost hundreds of dollars and don’t have much season-to-season staying power, and this faux version is priced perfectly and isn’t too shiny to be worn during the day with a casual outfit as an interesting, textured alternative to basic black leggings. Buy through ShopBop for $70.

Elizabeth and James Coli Suede Flats – Winter is all about mixing textures, and choosing suede flats for daytime is just another way to do it. The medium grey color pulls from the greys in both the purse and shirt, and it provides some softness at the end of the leather leggings. Buy through ShopBop for $285.

Dannijo Coco Ring – For an ensemble with this many textures, jewelry can be kept to a piece or two. When wearing sweaters, I stay away from bracelets because of snagging, and earrings would compete with the huge collar. A statement ring is therefore the perfect option, and this one adds just the right amount of shine while still keeping with the mood of the clothes. Buy through ShopBop for $216.

Nighttime – Feminine

Foley + Corinna Asymmetrical Party Dress – Nude and cream tones dotted the runways for the past two seasons, and this frilly dress gives a girly look to a trend that can become boring quickly. I’d be a bit afraid to crush the frills if I sat for too long, but this is the ideal dress for standing at a bar or dancing at a club while still looking flirty and pretty. Buy through ShopBop for $390.

Anna Sui Faux Fur Cropped Jacket – Fur is noticeably huge for fall, and the always-reliable Anna Sui has created the perfect (faux!) night-out topper. It’s cropped to show off as much of sher dress as possible, and the plush, glossy black fur will keep she warm and dressy-looking simultaneously. To go tough instead of glam, layer a cropped, draped leather jacket over sher party frock instead of fur. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $350.

Jeffrey Campbell Clara Mesh Platform Pumps – These shoes ride the fence between pump and booty admirably, and the black suede with mesh insets will mirror the dress well once a foot is inside. The design anchors a floaty ensemble without being too heavy, and they would be a versatile nighttime option to have in sher closet in case of random fabulous parties. Buy through ShopBop for $136.

Rachel Leigh Zelda Cluster Drop Earrings – Nothing accents an asymmetrical neckline like a pair of good dangly earrings, and since most necklaces don’t work with this type of dress, go for big and sparkly. This pair provides a little color variation for a very neutral outfit. Buy through ShopBop for $188.

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Daily New If I had gone to the Emmys, I would have carried Alexander McQueen for review Purse Blog 2010 new arrival now

I didn’t get an invitation (lost in the mail somewhere, surely) to the 2010 Emmy Awards, so I’m just going to show she a life-size picture of the Alexander McQueen Crystal-Encrusted Skull Clutch and imagine it in my hand. Because of that lost invite, I was also forced to give back my Marchesa dress and let Heidi Klum wear it, but she didn’t have the clutch to pair with it. So, in that regard, I still win. Except that she’s Heidi Klum, and I’m a blogger who doesn’t actually own this clutch either, technically speaking.

Ok, so maybe I don’t win. Either way, she can keep up with our coverage of Emmy fashion and weigh in on sher favorites (and least favorites, because that’s way more fun) over at purseThatStyle.com!

Buy through Alexander McQueen for $2215.

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