so i bought something else.......

anybody care to guess what it might be? it's quite lovely actually and it's better than a chanel. that's right. i said it. it's BETTER than a chanel.

why are you so hot?!

chanels have increased in retail price at a monstrous rate. the classic chanel styles you buy now are hiked up sometimes 3-9% in comparison to the previous year's cost! outrageous! i suspect one of the reasons for these price hikes is to maintain "exclusivity." young hollywood has been rocking them hard and the lemmings always follows. i wouldn't call myself a lemming, but unfortunately, i do heart chanel so much. let's look at some young hollywood rocking their chanels.

here's lauren conrad from mtv's "the hills" (omg i love that show). she's rocking a jumbo caviar flap. to no one's suprise, there is a suspected price hike on jumbos in november.

here's heidi (also from "the hills") rocking her white chanel accordian flap.

and here's audrina (also from "the hills") rocking her chanel diamond stitch tote. that sucker went up in price real quick and became a hot ebay number.

lindsay lohan and her super cute mini red lambskin flap. this bag is slightly bigger than a wallet on a chain. LOVE the red.

not to mention the countless other young celebrities that love them as well: mischa barton, nicole richie, paris hilton, olsen twins, christina aguilara, etc (hahaha, i didn't want to spend too much time downloading all their pics). anyways, a good bag is loved by all. too bad this love drives up the prices so damn high, hence, another suspected price hike in november.

*btw, why my homage to "the hills" girls? they brought teen attention to chanels. talk about the power of media.

don't ruffle her bag!

many bags share similar qualities. sometimes you see this quality prevalent in all the design houses in one season, and some linger and overflow to the next. i don't know if that's called staying power or just persistence. i think designers do find a fashion pulse though and they design a lot around a certain inspiration. OR, they see a particular style that they like and then they replicate it because they ran out of ideas themselves. who knows.... in my classroom, i call that COPYING. nooooo bueno!

in the past season, dior came out with a "gypsy bag." i believe the red ruffles you see adorning this bag is suppose to make you think of the tons of ruffles that a "gypsy" might rock with her skirts.

hot cartoon gypsy chick. notice the bellowing skirt.

in january of this year, dior came out with a red ruffled "gypsy bag." i don't think it's very cute. love the red color, but the ruffles are TOO much. don't they look like oversized panties? it also looks like you're carrying a frock. and for the price...ick. put that frickin' frock down!

i saw it sitting by its lonesome at a dior store. i did not go in to inquire, but the bag looked pretty big and i think the ruffles are made of leather.

fast forward 9 months later, another frickin' frock shows up. say hello to the prada pizzo sachel. it appears to be covered in lace and again it has RUFFLES. this bag is a straight up school-marm-with-a-tight-bun-about-to-attend-a-funeral bag though. this is no, no, no.

i think we should leave the ruffles alone. this is one fashion detail i don't mind disappearing with the dinosaurs.

a luxe pig

why did my sister send me this?

i can't believe someone did that to the pig!

blinged out hermes...oooohh la la

the hermes birkin is a pretty awesome bag. pretty awesome indeed. this hermes is beyond awesome though. check out the hardware!

this is a 35cm braise porosus croc with diamond hardware. so luscious is it not? croc skin and diamonds?! gorgeous! and the red?! spectacular!




oooooh la la indeed.

don't judge a bag by it's cover

on a recent trip to sin city, my friend and i were strolling through fashion show mall and we came across this kiosk called "miche bag." a 24 year old woman named michelle developed this concept bag.

anyways, the concept is simple. you have a basic black bag like this:

the bag itself is laid out with all these hidden magnets and the "shell" which is the interchangeable part is also laid with magnets. you snap off the shell when you want to change the look and then snap on a new shell when you figure out that new look. the process is SUPER EASY and pretty sturdy. i know because i walked by one and played with it.

snap on your shell of choice and voila! you have a new look for your bag!

first of all, freakin' shot outs to this michelle chick for coming up with a bag concept and making it happen. she is ONLY 24! dang. and i think the bag is "growing" in sales. she took the universal appeal of getting the best bang for your buck and made it a business. come on now, what better bang can you get than buying ONE item but find multiple looks and uses for it. i think most of us have good satisfaction when we can use any item to it's bits and pieces. makes it feel like it's worth our money.

anyways, the shells of her bag have girl's names. i'm assuming she must be naming them after some important chicks in her life. my favorite one is the "amy" shell. i don't know why the "amy" shell looks like a jail uniform though:

i personally wouldn't get a miche bage cuz i think it's fugz and the idea insults my bag whore proclivities. but to each their own.

rain, rain, go away

as i thought of our two friends traveling to a land where hurricane gustav might have blazed through, i was reminded of this interesting bag i saw. it's called a "bag raincoat" and it serves exactly what its name states...a bag for your bag during the rainy season.

i "get it" i suppose because some of these purses are hella expensive. it makes sense that you would want to protect them from damage during a rainy interlude. and i also "get it" i suppose in not wanting to put your chanel or bottega veneta in a plastic vons bag in order to protect it. you don't want to appear tacky so i "get it."

BUT, i still think it's pretty dumb. i would rather not bag my bag in a bag. if i expect it to rain, then i won't even carry my leathery babies. but if i didn't expect it to rain but it did, then i would just tuck it under my jacket or swiftly wipe the beads of rain off my purses as i have done in the past. spending money on a plastic raincoat for your bag smells like a dumb idea.