An Evening of Vintage Hermes Accessories.....You're Invited!

Rare Hermès handbags to go under the hammer at Christie’s France

PARIS, Feb 17 — It will be handbags at dawn for luxury auction house Christie’s France next month, when it launches its third annual luxury arm candy sale.

“Handbags & Accessories,” set to take place on March 5 in Paris, will feature rare and special edition pieces from fashion houses including Hermès, Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton, with price estimates ranging from €2,000 (RM9,400) to €70,000.

Highlights will include a “Vert Celadon Natura Kelly 28” by Hermès (pictured), believed to be one of fewer than 10 in the world. The bag is a nod to the styles of the 1920s, when it was impossible to remove pigment from certain exotic skins, meaning that the original skin colour could be seen through the finished product. Around the year 2000, Hermès revisited this process, and the resulting handbag is considered to be one of the most desired in the world. It is being offered at a very conservative estimate of €15,000 to €20,000.

Additional pieces include a “Himalaya Birkin 35” in grade 1, being offered conservatively at €70,000 to €90,000, and a limited edition “Birkin 35” from the So Black collection. This discontinued alligator edition is characterised by its metal hardware plated in black, rather than the usual gold or palladium. It is estimated between €40,000 and €45,000.

Other important Hermès examples include a barénia leather and wicker Kelly Picnic 35 and a custom-ordered Kelly 32 in Bleu Saphir, Bleu Marine and Bleu Jean alligator.

Christie’s is also holding a rare handbag auction in Dubai on March 17 to celebrate its 10th anniversary in the city. The event will feature handbags, trunks, watches and jewellery, with star pieces including an Hermès “Grand Mariage Kelly 32” in ostrich, alligator and lizard. A custom-ordered “Birkin 30” in anémone, rose confetti and bleu aztèque will also be on offer, estimated between $15,000 to $20,000.

Bernadette Peters - Broadway Barks

The gorgeous, talented and kind Bernadette Peters and I were both in NYC on book-tour at the same time so we did an event together at Lord & Taylor. Broadway Barks and Bringing Home the Birkin:

Birkin's are Out - Guns are In

Concealed Carry Purses Are the New Hermès Birkins

It's the bag trend you never saw coming.


The hottest trend in bags right now isn't fringe or studs or prints, it's guns. Specifically, purses designed to conceal guns.
According to Google, about 74,000 people search for the term "concealed carry purse" every month. That is the same number of people who look for "Hermès Birkin."

Concealed carry purses are most popular in North Carolina, followed closely by Texas, Ohio, Georgia, and Florida. 

It's a relatively new trend, popping up on Google's radar for the first time in 2011, but it has seen a dramatic increase in the last couple months at the same time that gun sales across the nation reached record highs following the mass shooting in San Bernadino, California, and President Barack Obama's subsequent calls for more restrictions on gun sales. 

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/fashion/news/a53281/concealed-carry-purse-trend/

Wannabes have ruined Fashion Week

it all lost its luster when we discovered that the Birkin waiting list was a hoax

New York Fashion Week was once the hottest ticket in town. Style-obsessed teens would park outside the tents at Bryant Park — and, later, Lincoln Center — in all their finery, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Anna Wintour or Sarah Jessica Parker. Naked PETA protesters would hurl pies and throw paint at editors’ fur coats. A weird club kid could crash a party at the Beatrice Inn or Don Hill’s and no one would bat an eye.

Not anymore, says Hannah Elliott, a luxury reporter for Bloomberg. “I noticed it [the other night] at the opening party for men’s fashion week,” she says. “Seemingly all of the people there were publicists and bloggers. Even as recently as five years ago, fashion parties were filled with downtown kids, artists, models and designers. But the whole thing has changed.”

She’s not alone in finding Fashion Week a bit stilted. As the women’s shows get ready to launch on Thursday, editors, designers and other insiders are saying the whole thing has become passé.

“We have designers, retailers and everybody complaining about the shows,” Diane von Furstenberg told WWD in December.

On Friday, Tom Ford canceled press previews of his fall 2016 collection, which had been scheduled for next week in New York. Instead, he’ll show — and, in a major industry shake-up, sell — his items simultaneously in the more seasonally appropriate September.

“Our customers today want a collection that is immediately available,” Ford said in a statement. “Fashion shows and the traditional fashion calendar, as we know them, no longer work in the way that they once did.”

The blow came on the heels of the news that London-based Burberry will combine its men’s and women’s collections in two shows every year, with “seasonless” lines immediately available to purchase on the Web.

In New York, part of the fashion fatigue stems from the fact that the biannual event is bigger — and more overwhelming — than ever. In 2012, the New York Fashion Week calendar boasted some 270 shows; that number has swelled to close to 400.

“Everyone in the industry complains about New York Fashion Week,” echoes Lauren Indvik, editor-at-large of Fashionista. “People just don’t want to go,” she says, “especially when the weather is freezing in February.” Indvik adds that she has significantly cut down on the number of shows she attends.

So has Bloomberg’s Elliott. “I don’t need to cover many of them,” she says, “but I go to support friends and sources who I use in my reporting.”

The lack of a central location — Fashion Week was kicked out of its previous Lincoln Center home in 2015 — adds to the hassle, making the event more alienating to outsiders who used to add color to the scene.

“You definitely see a lot less workers on their lunch breaks or tourists coming by to people-watch,” says Indvik.

On the whole, says Elliott, Fashion Week — once delightful and scrappy and exciting — has become overly corporate and creatively hollow. “It feels more like a game show or a reality show,” says Elliott, “than anything underground, fresh or unique.”

http://nypost.com/2016/02/08/insiders-whine-that-fashion-week-has-become-a-pain-in-the-ass/

Chanel vs Hermes

Chanel serves Champagne to their clients; Hermes serves water. I've always thought about that...