Pack Mentality?

I read on Sarah Davis's Fashionphile blog that Chanel was having a price increase on their bags. She was not kidding. The bag above is a grained calfskin 2.55 flap, Chanel's most famous bag, and was featured in the August 2010 issue of Vogue. On August 1 the price jumped from $2,600 to $3,400. That's a nearly 30% increase by my calculations, and in a bad economy too. Fashionphile's theory is that Chanel wants to make the brand a little harder to get to for most regular ladies, more like an Hermes (aspirational, rare) and less like a Louis Vuitton (as if those bags are cheap). What I found interesting is that when a friend and I were in Prada a week ago, looking at a gorgeous leather tote--with the relative bargain price of approximately $1,500--the Prada associate knew about the Chanel price increase and was using it as a selling point to push the Prada tote on us! That here was a beautiful bag, less than a Chanel 2.55 and far far less than an Hermes Birkin, tough, "You could drive a bus over it and it would still look great," and an heirloom too, it was so well made you'd not only have it forever you'd be leaving it to someone in your will.

All of which makes me wonder if luxury brands have pack mentality thinking, like the airline industry. Oh, a 30% price increase, Chanel? I see your thirty and raise you ten! Will I go back to Prada in a few months and have my friend there tell me the price of the Saffiano leather tote has risen an unbelievable amount?

Even the model holding the Chanel, Karlie Kloss, looks a little like, Can you believe this, people? A 30% price increase? What?

Lanvin Leopard

I could not be happier at the sight of so much leopard print being shown for fall in magazines and store windows, such as the Lanvin boutique on Madison Avenue, featured above.

I know leopard goes in and out of fashion, but I never tire of it, as long as it's not overdone.

Here's what Rachel Zoe, the celebrity stylist, has to say on the subject in her book Style A to Zoe--The Art of Fashion, Beauty & Everything Glamour:

"Add a blast of leopard to any black outfit. Leopard immediately adds sex appeal and mystery. It's a statement, and a strong one at that. Because it's a little risky, it declares confidence. It's no wonder so many designers revisit it season after season."

Diamonds, Anyone?

From the Kwiat store on Madison Avenue. Wow.

Prada Plaid

I have been in love with the Prada plaid dress since seeing it in Harper's Bazaar. Here it is, in three different colors, in the front windows of the Prada shop on Madison Avenue. I like the blue the best.

The New Talbots?

I just found this amazing photo of Linda Evangelista (whom I have loved since the 90's) on Bryanboy's blog (you can link to him under 'Blogs I Like'). I am blown away by how gorgeous Linda looks and that great leopard coat! I am also fascinated that Talbots seems to be going the way of J. Crew with a complete rethink of their designs and who they want their customer to be. I may have to visit Talbots very soon to see what else they've got going on and I would LOVE to hear from the person I know who works for Talbots to learn of what's happening behind the scenes.

The bottom tagline reads, "We believe in tradition transformed." Interesting. I will be watching to see what they do next.

What do you think of Linda's smokin' hot look?

Last Call: American Woman

This Sunday, August 15, 2010, is the final day to view American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is also my birthday and I'll buy the champagne right there at one of the bars inside the Met for anyone who wants to go with me and toast birthdays and beautiful clothes!

The above silk evening dress and linen vest is by Callot Soeurs, circa 1910, featured in the "Bohemian" room of the exhibit.

To The Shops

I just finished a great book about clothes in general, and the restorative power of fashion in particular, called The Thoughtful Dresser--The Art of Adornment, the Pleasures of Shopping, and Why Clothes Matter by Linda Grant. In the chapter "To The Shops" Grant writes about shopping in a way that struck a chord with me. A few gems:

"Shops, like cinemas, are dream factories. They sell glamour and illusions and unfulfillable desires. We see the goods, but most of them we can't have, yet it is usually enough to be among them, for a few hours."

"The point, for me, is to be in proximity to clothes. To see the things that are in the magazines. To gain some understanding of fabric, texture, and color."

"I think of shopping methodology as the difference between hunting and gathering. To be in the shops has nothing to do with shopping, it's just going to take a look, and this is the true pleasure of what appears on the surface to be shopping but is more akin to spending an hour or so in the National Gallery, wandering from room to room and educating one's eye."

"And last of all, the shops are free. Inside them, those glittering cathedrals of beauty, as long as you're properly attired, you are welcome."

I went out to the shops in Soho this weekend with a dear friend of mine. I spent all of $2 on a fabulous homemade peanut butter cookie, with peanut butter filling, at The Treats Truck, a truck with baked goods that drives around from place to place in city and sets up shop wherever it parks. Here are some of the shops we visited: Jack Spade, J. Crew Men's Shop, Meeka Meeko (jewelry), Louis Vuitton (Update: the $6,200 bag I wrote about here and want to visit should be in the store mid-August). We also went to A Second Chance Resale Boutique, where I got to see one of my ne plus ultra bags the Hermes Kelly, in red box calf leather, 32cm, gorgeous gorgeous, $4,000. I asked the saleswoman about the bag and commented that I'd seen others like it online, also secondhand and about the same price but with far more scratches. Her response: "Those can be polished out. It gets better with age." She laughed. "I'm telling you, it gets better with age."

She was in her late 50's, I'd guess, and in that laugh and that sentence, eminently quotable, I couldn't help feeling that she: 1) Had an Hermes Kelly of her own, and 2) Was talking about much more than a bag. All of which made me: 1) Want to own a Kelly more than ever (hey, a girl can dream), and 2) Want to get older (did I just say that?) to discover what, exactly, she was talking about.

To the shops indeed, where little mysteries of fashion, retail and life are revealed to me.