A sampling from the collection of colorful, original scarves and shawls from Hermes.com creates this wonderful, colorful border above
Chanel evening bag sold on Rebag
WHAT I LOVE
I love all kinds of colorful accessories. They range from head to toe. For example, these include items from hats to handbags. Then handbags to scarves and shawls. Even scarves and shawls to shoes. As well as shoes to costume jewelry. Whatever the item is, there is one thing that they all have in common.
Stepping out in Stride
Kurt Geiger makes an outrageous colorful statement in the shoe department. No need to take my word for this. Instead check what’s next in colorful accessories.
Kurt Geiger shoes for casual and dressup occasions.
Going Out in Style
Emphatically, the one thing all these items share is their flair. The Kensington collection from Kurt Geiger of London is a statement to their pallette.
The Kurt Geiger Kensington Collection of very Colorful purses
OVER THE RAINBOW
Colorful accessories come in all shapes, sizes, and price ranges. These Balenciaga bags are definitely at the over the rainbow end of prices. But appeal is not always based on cost. In fact, I have also found some very affordable brands that are equally as attractive. Dasein and Diophy are two such companies. You can learn more about them in a little while.
This Balenciaga Logo Ville Bag Printed Leather XXS available on ReBag is a perfect example of a fantastic colorful accessory.
IMAGINE: Everyday Affordable and Still Colorful
Here are two colorful bags that I have now. One is a Dasein handbag in turquoise. The other is in orange. They are available is numerous other solid colors in addition to a leopard print. Just imagine if this style came in the colors of the Balenciaga bag above. It is my dream idea for Dasein to create a bag in the Rainbow pattern colors. In fact, I plan to ask them to make this design.
Above are the Turquoise and Orange Faux Patent Handbags available from Amazon.com and Daseinbags.com
Last but not least is a brand called Diophy. In fact, they carry some amazing colorful patterns at very reasonable prices. Here is an example of both the affordable and the irresistible.
NEWLY DISCOVERED HANDBAG TREASURES MAKE MY SEARCH EXTRA FUN
I keep a close watch on what is new as well as what is newly available in the world of handbag treasures. Let’s say this is sort of the-bag-of-the-month club. Sometimes there are bags I have never seen before. Then I jump for joy.
Other times, there are bags I love so much, they bear repeating. There are even handbag treasures that are so affordably special that I have been able to purchase them. Dasein fits right into that category. This brand is featured at the conclusion of this post.
HANDBAG TREASURE BRANDS
There are several brands that I adore. Besides this, I have special ways that I keep track of my passion for my favorite brands. To start, let me introduce the brands:
Faux patent leather handbags are currently at the top of my favorites list of accessories. There is, in particular, a new brand handbag that is affordable, comes in brilliant colors, is shiny, roomy and their clever name Dasein, translated from German, means ‘Being there’. The hang tag image below explains the significance of their name with ‘About Us’.
This is the front with logo (left) and back with About Us (right) of the Dasein faux patent leather handbag hang tag.
THE HANDBAG STORY
As discussed in previous blog posts, Designer Purse Gems , I love handbags. In fact, I have a collection approaching 80 bags. It started out with ones I purchased decades ago. Then moved on to thrift store vintage bags. After that I started researching valuable vintage bags. But they started to get pricey. Suddenly and mysteriously, I discovered a company that I had never heard of before, Dasein. The name stands for ‘being there’.
Shiny Patent Faux Leather Handbags Barrel Top Handle Purse Satchel Bag Shoulder Bag for Women
I was amazed at their appearance, practicality, affordability, attention to detail, storage bag accessory, and brilliant colors. Most of all, I loved the name, ‘Faux Patent Handbags’.
DASEIN JOINS MY HANDBAG FAMILY
Because it was autumn and Halloween was approaching, it was easy to choose the color for my first Vegan Leather Dasein Handbag, autumn leaves or pumpkin orange.
A photo of the Orange Vegan Patent Handbag. This is from Amazon.com. Bags are available directly from Daseinbags.com
MORE
Clearly, I had to adopt more Dasein bags. The many qualities I described above made having more irresistible. The choice was not difficult. Although the color was not as much in season as autumn orange, turquoise went well with my fall into winter wardrobe. So there I was ordering one more.
Above is the Turquoise Vegan Handbag available from Amazon.com and Daseinbags.com
THEN A MISTAKE
What would I do next? Would I quit with two? Try for a third? Go for another style or another brand? How about PINK?!
Although on the pale side, I hoped the pink displayed by both retailers would still be pretty.
CORRECTION AND CONCLUSION
All was not lost. There was one more option, a leopard pattern vegan patent handbag. Actually, it appears very chix on the internet. So I ordered it. Hopefully, it will be as cool as my first two and not another pale pink disappointment.
This is the only Dasein handbag in this style that has a pattern. I hope it is a winner.
I am hoping that the wonderful color fashionistas will follow suit with more brilliant colors for the Spring pr Summer of 2022. These include other brilliant hues such as yellow, hot pink or magenta and the 2022 Pantone Color of the Year, Very Peri.
A border of polka dots patterns colors from a Yahoo search for polka dots
INTRODUCTION
As much as I love plaid and check patterns, polka dots patterns will always bring great joy to my heart. For example, I will smile or even laugh whenever I see them or think about them. Therefore when I see clothes or home decor in polka dots, I find it irresistible to buy them.
Marilyn Monroe in a polka dots pattern two piece bathing suit
APPEAL
I was very curious to learn about the history of my beloved pattern since the only thing I knew about polka was a dance named the polka.
As a matter of fact, I wondered if there was any correlation between the two, the dance and the pattern.
Therefore, an online search should answer my question. But even before an answer to its history, I got side tracked.
It is undeniable that it has been very popular. Although one critic insisted that the pattern was childish, polka dots clearly have a much wider appeal than just to children.
The pose of Marilyn Monroe above in a two piece polka dots pattern bathing suit attests to the most outstanding quality of this pattern. That is its appeal to adults not just children. Similar to it is the appeal of the photo below of Victoria Silvstedt. Even more so, her polka dots bikini barely covers her.
MORE (OR LESS)
Strutting her stuff: Victoria Silvstedt, who has worked with top designers including Chanel, Christian Dior and Valentino, looked incredible in the bandeau bikini which did little to contain her assets.
“Strutting her stuff: Victoria Silvstedt, who has worked with top designers including Chanel, Christian Dior and Valentino, looked incredible in the bandeau bikini which did little to contain her assets.”
Quote from The Daily Mail
MUSIC
Let’s Have A Party Polka – Walter Ostanek, Brian Sklar and Western Senators – Polkarama! from Youtube.
HISTORY OF THE POLKA DOT PATTERN
The woman festooning polka dot hair scarves resembles ‘Rosie the Riveter. Is this a call for all women to wear polka dots?A History Pt. 1History Pt. 2History Pt. 3History Pt. 4History Pt. 5History Pt. 6
From PBS NewsHour: “At the Hirshhorn Museum, visitors are lining up to experience Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s world of whimsy, color, shapes and a peek into the beyond. Jeffrey Brown tells us why this new exhibit is currently the toughest ticket in Washington, D.C.”
CONCLUSION
A Simple polka dot pattern of yellow and Red from Wiki
“The nine decades of artist Yayoi Kusama’s life have taken her from rural Japan to the New York art scene to contemporary Tokyo, in a career in which she has continuously innovated and re-invented her style.” YouTube
Buffalo Check which is also known as Lumberjack Plaid is a mate to tartan plaid. Similar to the Royal Stewart tartan plaid, the former is equally as popular. Just about anything that looks good in Royal Stewart looks great in this pattern, too.
Whichever you call it, it is one of my favorites and a very popular pattern. Getty image.
HISTORY
Historically, this pattern could include clothing, then bedding, now handbags and other items. Here’s a great story from Tartan Authority describing its history.
It’s Origin Part 1History Part 2History Part 3Bee & Willow sheets available at Bed Bath & Beyond
MORE OF THIS PATTERN
Continuing on from its Indian blanket trading history, it became a pattern for a man’s shirt. This design has been popularized on many items. Here is a sampling of its use in bedding above and then in a woman’s handbag below.
Royal Stewart Plaid Kilt from the Scottish Kilt Shop
12538 Basque Pl Woodbridge VA 22192 USA
INTRODUCTION
My plaid passion began sometime in my youth although I can’t say exactly when. But plaid has been a favorite pattern of mine as far back as I can remember.
My earliest memory may have just been the pattern itself. But there is no question that I soon developed a taste for anything with it.
I had clothes, a jacket and tartan plaid sheets and towels. My mother even had a plaid bathrobe.
But it was not until I was an adult that I learned about the Scottish plaids that represented the clans. They proudly wore the tartan and it was not just for decoration.
I later learned that there are many different tartan plaids as well as plaids that are unrelated to Scottish clans.
The Vermont Country Store is where you can get all kinds of plaid sheets and other bedding to your heart’s content
There are two types of plaid that I love. They are tartans plaid and lumberjack plaid aka buffalo check. The former come from the clans that wove this fabric and made their garments from these ancestral patterns.
This toddler’s dress is in the Royal Stewart Dress plaid. It is by George and available on Poshmark.
Their history is described here in this post. In addition, images above focuses on bedding and clothes in the Royal Stewart tartan plaid while images for lumberjack plaid aka buffalo check are on the next blog post.
CONTINUE
My plaid passion has never worn out. In fact to this day, I have found a new object for my love of plaid, handbags. I don’t think I ever owned a plaid one. But that is about to change. Searching online, I have discovered an abundance of plaid handbags. This actually includes those made out of wool and cotton. Then there are my outstanding favorites, patent leather plaid.
This is an outstanding example of a patent leather plaid handbag found on poshmark.
Although the above handbag is not in a traditional plaid, it is still beautiful. Here is a tote that is in a traditional Stewart plaid.
This tote was found on Etsy and is decorated in Stewart plaid.
It is a well known fact in the fashion industry that haute couture can only be afforded by the very wealthy. Thanks to the world of ‘knock-off’ fashion, the extraordinary becomes affordable. Therefore, this blog post provides some really surprising financial examples of this in the handbag industry.
Anne Hathaway’s famous blue sweater that Meryl Streep lectures her about in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’
As Meryl Streep deliberately explains to Ann Hathaway in, ‘The Devil Wears Prada‘, the extraordinary births the ordinary. Meryl Streep describes the origins of a shabby blue sweater that Anne Hathaway is wearing. Its history is from glamorous haute cuttiere. Anne Hathaway is totally oblivious to this. At this stage in the movie, Anne has no idea that the the ordinary is inspired by the extraordinary.
WILD ABOUT HANDBAGS
Although I am not devotee of high fashion clothing, I am wild about handbags. Therefore I have been studying the world of glamour in this industry. One of my favorite companies is Rebag. I have been introduced to luxury handbags through their social media and website. This adds to the knowledge I already have to what I consider affordable quality handbags including Coach, Dooney and Bourke, and Kate Spade.
Luxury Gingham bag on left and two less expensive bags to its right
HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS
Since I have only been able to encounter handbags in the hundreds in person, I can only surmise the difference in the cost of those in the thousands.
My favorite Coach vintage bag is called the Willis bag. Because it is a classic, variations of it have been made over many decades. A recent version, in green, and two original designs are pictured below.
They are all high quality Coach products but their age can impact the price by several hundred dollars. Due to its rarity, the vintage Willis is about twice the cost of the new one.
Three Coach Willis bags are pictured here. The green one is the latest version. Photo from Coach. The two on the right are classic version. Photos from Etsy.
THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS
I had no idea that there were handbags that were more expensive than new automobile or even a house. Even those designer bags have imitators or want-to-be handbags. The designer bags include the Hermes Birkin bags which are six and seven figures. Their inspired versions cost a few hundred retail like the totes from Coach and Kate Spade.
Three pink totes ranging from nearly a $1 million Hermes Birkin Bag, a five figure Prada bag to a Coach tote on sale for about $100.
WHIMSICAL
Both very expensive and less expensive handbag companies make whimsical purses. Great whimsy inspires affordability. The most famous of this is Judith Leiber handbags. They are very whimsical as well as expensive. In similar fashion, Kate Spade came out with its frog bag. The former retails for a few hundred dollars. The latter goes for between about $5,000.
A Kate Spade Wicker Frog Bag next to A Judith Leiber Frozen Marguerita Clutch. The Judith Leiber is over 10 times as expensive as the Kate Spade bag.
ALMOST TWINS
These two totes are so similar. In fact, I took a double take when I discovered the Burberry Remington tote. It’s hard to believe that it can cost up to five times as much as the Kate Spade on the right when this designer ‘knock’ goes on sale.
Two bags that look so similar. The Burberry on the left can be five times as expensive as the Kate Spade on the right when it goes on sale.
GUESS WHICH BRAND THIS ONE IS
Sometimes the affordable bags are so well made that one can’t tell the difference between luxury, ‘working girl designer’ (like Coach and Kate Spade) or a total ‘knock off’. This example is from the best knock off company I have found. If you’re curious, the answer is in the Sources and Resources section.
Guess which brand this is. The answer is in Sources & Resources.
CONCLUSION
As a handbag collector and flea market stalker, I am always on the prowl for that special but accessible bag that the seller is practically giving away. Wouldn’t it be great if someone was selling an extraordinary purse for next to nothing. That is my dream. So I continue to search and collect in the hope my dream comes true.
What is installation art? Do art installations interest you? Without intention, I have created several art installation projects. Read about them in this blog post.
My collection of vintage enamel kitchenware is too old and fragile to use. As a decorative collection, it becomes installation art.
Because I have collected and created so many small to medium sized 3D objects, I have had several options of what to do with them:
1. Box them for storage
2. organized them in bigger collectibles
2. Sell them
3. Display them individually
4. Use thm
5. Create art installation projects.
In this post, I focus on the fifth option, installation art. In fact the only way everything I collect and love has a home is because I create art installations of them.
LOVELY TO LOOK AT
A Wall of Purses are gems individually and an art installation as a group
If I can’t resist, I can still take these purses off the wall and wear them one at a time. But I would rather look at them all at one time.
TAKE YOUR HAT OFF TO INSTALLATION ART
I love to wear hats. Over a century ago, when all women wore hats that were very fashionable and voluminous at that. Care and storage were a challenge. Hat boxes were essential, indeed. But they took up so much room. Those hats did not need to be part of art installations. They were installations, themselves. My Great Grandmother Annie Laber (1877-1935) in her finery.
So I created a new take on accessible hat storage and selection. This way I can choose at a moments notice which to wear for the day and which to hang up. But let’s go back just for a moment to over a century ago to what my Great Grandmother Annie Laber wore when she wore her finery. Here’s a place to hang your hats when you’re not wearing them but you want to show them off. This was originally a plant stand.
A MINI INSTALLATION Imagine this ten time bigger and an installation one could walk around and even enter like a magic bus.
Irresistible small items that imagine themselves into a mini installation.
When I start to gather these mini treasures, then put them together, I never know what whimsy will emerge.
This piece started as a small metal box, was decorated with whatever I could gather at the time. it is so much fun.
I wish I could make it ten times bigger. Imagine the size of a real magic bus big enough to sit it, enjoy the song magic bus, and capture to true meaning of an art installation.
My designer purse gems were not difficult for me to select from my rather large collection of favorite designer and style bags. Some are on my studio wall to provide a decorative view of this room. Others decorate my bedroom, and the rest are housed in their own cabinet. Four of my designer purse gems are featured in this blog post. Indeed these four are my favorites even though I have many others that I love.
For example, I own about a dozen Coach bags. These and others purses are the ones that serve as decoration on my studio wall. They are all still usable as pocketbook. They are truly my designer purse gems.
This wall displays most of my Coach Bag collection as well as others and is the view on my studio wall
My Gems
From the above and other purses that I have collected, there are four that are the absolute gems. The images below or either from my own collection or from the companies themselves. How I wish you could see them and touch them. Maybe one day, they will all be in a design museum or a handbag collection in a interdisciplinary one. Museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art, also in New York and The Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Then you will able to see them in person.
These are pictures of the bags that I posses or similar ones to my own. From left to right, Coach original Wills bag, new Coach Willis 18 bag, Dooney & Bourke teton bag, and the Furla round bag.
Public Gems
Did you know that there are other museums that do house outstanding everyday objects of superior design? Well, there are. Even though some of my bags are design to last ‘forever’, I hope that as many people as possible will be able to enjoy them by experiencing them. Then my designer purse gems, will be your design purse gems, too.
The banner for Dooney & Bourke All Weather leather bags blog.
THE DUCK BRAND
the famous vintage style ‘All Weather Leather’ duck bag is captured here.
Acquiring an ‘all weather leather’ Dooney & Bourke bag started my collection. That is because a D & B bag was the ideal way to dress on rainy days and fun vintage bag days. So began my collecting. But it did not last forever.
Although this company had it purse beginnings in all weather leather, it have moved on to other styles and materials. When they moved on, I moved on as well.
But their all weather leather is still my favorite Dooney & Bourke. That’s why I want to focus this post on ‘their duck bag’.
Their original styles can sometimes be found on sites like ebay and Pinterest
MEMORIES
The bag shown below is similar to the very first one I ever owned. It was my first step into designer bags. From there, my story continues.
A New Vintage Dooney & Bourke Handbag found on ebay
COLLECTING QUALITY LEATHER PURSES
As I mentioned, my first love was Dooney & Bourke. Coach had not introduced vibrant color yet. Therefore I gravitated to the colorful ‘all weather leather’ that caught my eye when I began collecting. Because of the vibrant, colorful design of all the bags I bought, the one below has always been my favorite. It was the teton bucket purse style.
I found so many picture of ‘All Weather Leather’ Bags when I was researching this post. To be thorough, I am including this image from ebay.
Images of some of the Dooney & Bourke vintage bags that are available on ebay.
