Even Chanel loves leopard for fall

At this point, if you don’t like leopard print, I feel kind of bad for you. It seems as though every brand under the sun, from high-end to low-end and everything in between, has released some sort of leopard bag for fall. The trend is inescapable, which is great if you’re like me and you already had a pair of glittery silver and black leopard leggings left over from last year. Yeah, I said it.

If I had an extra four grand laying around, this Chanel Strass and Tweed Leopard Classic Flap would be the perfect compliment to my admittedly tacky-but-fun leggings. Or to a black dress of any sort. Or any outfit, really.

I don’t adore the actuality of this bag, but the idea is wonderful. The scale of the leopard print needs to be a bit smaller for the bag since it’s rendered in separate crystals and not a solid color, and the combination of the size and material makes the end result a bit awkward. It wouldn’t need to be much smaller – just a tad. But for the price, I’d want it to be absolutely perfect (not to mention made of leather instead of tweed). Buy through Chanel for $4000. For more purchasing information and assistance locating this bag, please contact Chanel at (800)550-0005.

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Chanel Take Away Box Bag

I always appreciate an interesting design concept when it comes to handbags. And that is precisely what you get from the Chanel Take Away Box Bag, a mixture of culture and whimsical fun with one of the bags from the Chanel Shanghai accessories collection.

Clearly inspired by Chinese take-away boxes, this handbag is made with metallic fabric and finished off with a classic leather and metal chain strap. For Chanel bags, this is a very different look. I picture it perfectly on Carrie Bradshaw. While this isn’t the exact bag I would purchase, I completely appreciate the design and idea behind it. But after inquiring I found out the bag is sold out. Price was $7,500 (info via Chanel).

What do you think of the Chanel Take Away Box Bag?

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Happy Friday: The Chanel Paillette Flap Bag

This bag doesn’t need much of an explanation. The Chanel Paillette Flap Bag is from the brand’s Paris-Shanghai (Pre-Fall) 2010 collection, and it’ll set you back a cool $6000.

Picture via Chanel.com. To inquire about purchase, please contact Chanel at (800)550-0005.

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Tomorrow on Rue La La: Chanel

The opportunities to get authentic Chanel bags under retail are few and far between. Even more rare is markdowns up to 70% off retail price. Sounds too good to be true? In this case, it is not. Tomorrow, Thursday July 22nd, on Rue La La starting at 11 am EST the Madison Avenue Couture-Chanel Event will go live. During this, you will have the chance to score Chanel items for up to 70% off retail prices.

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Paris Haute Couture Week: Chanel

Most people who follow fashion know the Chanel signatures very well: black, ivory, bouclé, suits, camellias, black, ivory. Rinse, repeat. Karl Lagerfeld’s Spring 2010 haute couture collection of graphic white and silver was a significant departure from the Chanel aesthetic that we have all come to expect, and his Chanel Fall/Winter 2010 Haute Couture collection is yet another giant step into new territory.

The most startling things about this collection were the surprising choices in color and proportion. Normally Chanel’s color palette is very predictable, but these clothes were rendered in the very un-Chanel shades of maroon, gold, navy and brown. Proportion was primarily at play in the collection’s suits and coats – abbreviated jackets were paired with below-the-knee flared skirts, coats were often boxy and straight or puffed to comical proportions. As always with Chanel couture, the real fireworks started after the show’s halfway point, where somewhat odd suits and jackets gave way to beading and embroidery so intricate and masterful that an in-person viewing would surely be required in order to appreciate the skill of the work in full. In the end, this collection should be counted as a bold achievement on the part of Lagerfeld and his team even if the suits and coats looked to hold it back at times.

Photos via Style.com

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Love It or Leave It: Chanel Lambskin Tote with Exterior Pocket

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

I’m guessing it is a bad sign if the first thought I had when I saw this Chanel bag was “this reminds me of the Louis Vuitton Tribute Patchwork Bag…“. While I know the amount of work that went into that LV bag was immense, it simply was a bag that made no sense to me. And clearly Marc Jacobs was loving the idea of bags attached to bags, because he implemented it on a namesake bag as well. And now Chanel is kind of doing it, obviously much less than the Louis Vuitton bag, but there is an exterior pocket that looks like an additional bag attached to the front.

I must give the Chanel Lambskin Tote with its exterior pocket credit, it is leaps and bounds more subdued and gorgeous than the Louis Vuitton bag I mentioned above. But I simply can not find myself wanting a bag that looks like it has scrap parts of an additional bag glued on the front. This Chanel bag is however created with luscious black lambskin and has an odd way of flowing together and making the outside flap pocket be usable. While it is not for me, I almost feel this one little part of me thinking it might work. Inquire more via Chanel.

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Chanel Classic Flap Bag in Alligator Skin

All I have to say is I absolutely adore everything about the Chanel Classic Flap Bag in semi-matte alligator skin from the Paris Shanghai collection.

Sometimes a picture truly is worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to an exotic Chanel bag. And for those asking the price, $28,350.

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Behold: The Chanel Cassette Clutch

Oh, Karl Lagerfeld is so clever. Or crazy. Maybe both! Yes, probably both. But this time, I think he might be crazy like a fox – the Chanel Casette Clutch is not only kind of hilarious (you know, in a droll fashion sort of way), but it’s totally useable (well, if you’re the type that would use a tiny, clear clutch.)

UPDATE: The clutch is vintage and for sale! Make the jump for more info.

Thanks to lovely commenter V., we’ve been pointed to the real origins of this lovely clutch: ShopLuxirare.com. Several blogs picked up these pictures from Luxuo.com yesterday, who did not indicate that they had taken the pictures from a vintage shop instead of from a press release or editorial, as is far more common. But now we know the truth!

The clutch is a lucite relic from the 80s (ok, nevermind, it seems as though no one is exactly sure when this clutch was made – perhaps as recently as a few years ago), and the shop owner says that it’s one-of-a-kind (take that with a grain of salt.) Not only is the clutch utterly lovely and available for $1500, but ShopLuxirare.com is absolutely chock full of awesome finds, both vintage and contemporary. Even if you don’t want to buy the clutch, you should check out the site for the awesome eye candy. Buy through ShopLuxirare.com for $1500.

Lucite box clutches like this one are sort of popular lately – the Spring/Summer 2010 Fendi lucite clutches are selling out all over the place. The material and shape has a midcentury modern appeal to it that fits in with a lot of emerging trends, so it’s only logical that they’d be popular.

What Chanel did, however, was give the lucite box clutch some 80s cred. At this point in the iTunes universe, cassettes are an object of pure, good-natured nostalgia, and as someone that associates them with my childhood I couldn’t help but smile when I saw this bag. Although we’ve seen the 80s trend wane a bit in the past season, it’s nowhere near over and this clutch is a welcome addition.

For pricing information, please contact your local Chanel boutique.

Photos via Luxuo.com

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Chanel goes ‘haute hippie’ for Cruise 2011

After the faux-fur-on-ice (literally) escapades of Chanel’s Fall/Winter 2010 collection, it was hard to predict the direction in which Karl Lagerfeld would go for his next collection, Chanel Cruise 2011. Well, after the collection’s presentation in Saint-Tropez, we know that Kaiser Karl has his mind planted firmly in the Riviera of the 60s and 70s. Models arrived to the show by speedboat and Georgia May Jagger, daughter of Mick, graced the runways to give the show some retro cred (it also doesn’t hurt that Georgia May looks like Brigitte Bardot. Startlingly so.)

The clothes recreated the era fantastically, even though a few pieces would probably have best been left in the time period from whence they came. Most of them, however, were a welcome contrast to the version of the 60s that graced fall runways – tailored, traditional, neutral. The flowing, flowered caftans, jumpsuits and crocheted overlays had a distinct flower-child appeal, and they look utterly appropriate for the cruise crowd: airy, light and perfect for the deck of a yacht. If you like what you see, order early, though – the Kate Hudsons of the world will likely buy the entire collection out from under you.

All images courtesy of Style.com

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Chanel Vintage Speedy Bag

I wish with every fiber of my being that more online stores stocked vintage luxury bags. There’s something that I find so alluring about vintage – much of it, particularly those items made by luxury houses, has the feel of true exclusivity that even most high-end bags are missing these days.

Most of us know that almost everything we buy is made in factories, not by a talented artisan that cares about his work, and that makes luxury goods a bit less fun. With vintage, at least we can pretend that it was made by a guy named Francois in a picturesque workshop, diligently sewing bags while wearing a beret and smoking a hand-rolled cigarette. Or at least that’s what happens in my head. Perhaps Francois had a hand in the lovely Chanel Vintage Speedy Bag? I bet no one can prove to me that he didn’t – it’s vintage, after all.

This is not your average vintage Chanel bag – classic flaps are fairly easy to find at high-end vintage shops and, if you have nerves of steel, on eBay, but styles that were only made for a short period of time and don’t have the “iconic” status of a flap bag are what really intrigue me. I particularly like the large metal pieces on the ends and that this bag uses a specially woven leather to mimic the brand’s trademark quilts – the details go a long way in a vintage piece. I don’t know if I’d pay the premium for it, but if you want a Chanel bag that you’ll probably never see on anyone else, something like this is right up your alley. Buy through ShopBop for $4180.

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