Purse On Us

As always I keep you aware of what is given away for free, and today The Walking Company are that ge

We don’t mind the cold when we can accessorize with ‘hot’ designer handbag like today’s featured bag from MARC JACOBS. Soft, rich cocoa shearling warm us right up!

Although DIOR handbags are know for being funky and colorful, today’s featured designer handbag is one of DIOR’s more low-key styles. A great everyday bag, this black leather shoulder bag will go with everything and one to cherish for years to come.

By Ashley Pearson
www.dailymail.co.uk
9/02/2007

Just like any other mother in Los Angeles, Victoria Beckham decided to take out her boys for a day of fun.

She slid into her requisite 5in heels (black Louboutin peeptoes), donned skinny black drainpipe denims and took her three children to California’s Aquatic Centre for a boat trip and some fresh air.

But that’s not what caused a near frenzy when the photos hit the internet. It was the gigantic red Valentino Pintucked Shopper she was carrying that made ripples around the world. Here was the first sighting of one of autumn’s biggest It-bags.

This year, the battle to create autumn’s It-bag is shaping up to be a tight race.

In a market saturated with satchels, shoulder bags, totes and clutches, designers are stepping up their game to create the bag every woman is desperate to have on her arm.

And, oh what arms they’ve been on already. The campaign to build bag buzz begins in July, when publicists started sending around their season’s hopeful to Hollywood’s creme de la creme.

This way, fashion-savvy shoppers have spotted their musthave bags weeks before they hit the shops. For the handbag lover, August can seem interminable.

Pictures of Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Moss teasing us in flip flops and summer dresses while clutching enormous quilted, leather, buckled and padlocked handbags from the autumn collections are enough to send anyone into a fashion frenzy.

The next stage is when luxury brands host bag parties.

In the spring, Yves Saint Laurent threw a champagnefuelled Beverly Hills bash inviting their best and most loyal customers to toast the guest of honour – the Downtown bag. The guests quickly became its faithful, loyal following.

Brands such as Gucci, Chloe and Versace are no strangers to this technique for building hype around their season’s chosen one. This year Smythson will be feting the Nancy bag.

There’s a method behind the madness. Handbags are the easiest luxury fashion item for designers to sell – statistics out last week found that the average 30-year- old owns 21 handbags and buys a new one every three months.

That adds up to 111 bags over a lifetime – with a total outlay of more than £8,000.

And the pay-off for fashion houses is spectacular – for most luxury brands the profit is between ten and 12 times the cost of making them.

So why are we prepared to splash so much of our well-earned cash at the right designer shoulder-holder?

As Chanel maestro Karl Lagerfeld said: “They make your life more pleasant, make you dream, give you confidence and show your neighbours you are doing well.

“Everyone can afford a luxury handbag.” Fellow designer Marc Jacobs, whose iconic Stam bag costs around £800, agrees.

“Handbags are a big deal because they are fetish objects, like shoes. They also fit everybody. It’s not as if you have to be a supermodel to have a nice bag.”

Jacobs believes that people are willing to spend hundreds of pounds on It-bags because of the image and status they project.

“There is a lot of money in the world right now. People love to show off with a status symbol and belong to an elite club.

“Even in primary school, you had to have a certain kind of trainer or alligator on your shirt.”

And these days that elite club is all about having the right bag.

Society girl Caroline Stanbury is the founder of Style-Me.net, a luxury fashion and lifestyle service that acts as a private stylist with a very exclusive client list.

She says that for all of her clients, the right handbag is key.

“You can be wearing Zara, Topshop or other High Street clothes, but if you add a fabulous handbag it brings the whole thing to a different dimension. If you splurge on designer clothes, your use is limited, but if you spend £500 on a bag you will use it every single day.”

But when there are more than 40 It-bags for the new season, how do you make this all important choice?

Tina Lamb, accessories buyer at Harvey Nichols says that this year it’s all about luxury.

“There is a move away from the WAGs and the It-bags that everyone can buy in to.

“Alligator and crocodile bags are out of reach for most of us, so they remain exclusive – spending the same money as the price of a car is irrelevant for these buyers as they can have both.

“Prices are increasing due to the rarity of the skins used – especially alligator, which has become pricey following all the hurricanes.”

Yasmin Sewell, the head buyer for Browns, has also noticed a trend for individuality.

“It’s been a different season for handbags. Unlike in years past, it hasn’t been about only two or three hot bags.

“Instead of buying a lot of stock from seven or eight designers, I’ve bought something 50 or 60 different styles of bag, but only one or two of each. This way it keeps that feeling of exclusivity.

“This year, the average price of the bags we carry has gone up from £600 to £1,000. And when you’re going up that high, you need a point of difference from everyone else. I mean, you want to feel special for £1,000.”

Ysamin tips the Downtown from YSL in grey mock croc and Chole’s Eloise bag because it looks great with this season’s flares. Her other favourite brand is Zagliani.

“People want their beautiful coloured crocs,” says Yasmin. “They also have a big celeb following – Catherine Zeta-Jones loves them and Jennifer Lopez has been a fan from day one.”

This kind of celebrity endorsement can make or break an It-bag.

We all know that glamorous A-listers are given truck-loads of designer freebies (rumour has it that Keira Knightley receives 20 bags a week from designers desperate for her to be snapped carrying their purse), but they give most away to friends or family.

So it stands to reason that the bags the celebrities do choose to hold on to have to be pretty special – the best of the best.

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