Chanel 'Essential' Bag, Large - SS2009

Sometimes the parallels are much too literal. Case in point: luxury “paper” bags. The phenomenon started with Chanel – the Fashion High prom queen 100 years running. Bags given to shoppers at the brand’s flagship 31, Rue Cambon location in Paris had themselves become a sought after item, when the savvy house decided to go ahead and sell them, but in leather and for up to $3,000. Talk about selling symbols…

It reminds me of being in jr. high again, when all the cool kids brought their gym clothes to school in Gap bags. You know, those navy ones with the drawstring tops (do they still make those?). Mind you, I grew up in the middle of the corn belt, i.e. Gap was as close to haute as my little hometown had back then. It wasn’t uncommon for we preteens to go buy something at the store just for the bag. If Maureen Chiquet had been around the company might’ve had a thriving side business with some killer profit margins.

But enough about me.

Now several brands are creating bags like look like paper, but are made from luxe materials. Trendy newcomer Proenza Schouler made one for it’s Pre-Fall 2010 collection and the bag sold out the same day it premiered on on net-a-porter.com, where it retailed for $615 this summer. To Hernandez and McCollough’s credit – this has loads more style then last year’s “Essential” bag.

And there’s more! Loewe, Spooner + Watts, and Slow and Steady Wins the Race all have paper bag styles on the market this year. Thankfully, for those of us with Givenchy tastes and Gap budgets the entry price point is within reach. But then, who wants what’s within reach?

photos: purseblog.com, slowandsteadywinstherace.com, spoonerandwatts.co.uk, loewe.com

Kate Moss is adding another established label to her design credentials.

PARIS – The model, star of the French accessories’ firm’s advertising for the past four years, worked with Longchamp artistic director Sophie Delafontaine on a collection labeled Kate Moss for Longchamp. It will arrive in its boutiques and select department stores starting Feb. 11. It is understood to be a long-term contract calling for two collections per year.

Source: WWD.com

With To Be G, a handbag collection by Guccio and Alessandro Gucci, great-grandsons of Guccio Gucci, who founded the Gucci brand in 1921, the brothers are set on carving out their own niche, while avoiding any trademark infringement.

“We are not doing this because our name is Gucci, nor do we want to try and replicate what the Gucci brand is doing,” said Guccio Gucci during a tour of his Scandicci, Tuscany, manufacturing plant. “We have our own vision.”

Their passion for leather goods and the accessories business runs deep and in this sense they are Guccis to the core. Guccio Gucci, who designs the To Be G brand, spent 12 years at Gucci, where he coordinated development of product and research of hides, until the company was sold to Investcorp in 1989. After working in the textile industry for almost a decade, he went on to help his father, Giorgio, on the GiorgioG handbags line.

Read the rest at WWD.com

I was already getting set to list Little Boots (aka Victoria Hesketh) as one of the Best Dressed at GQ’s Men of the Year Awards when into by inbox pops a note from the always awesome farfetch.com. The online retailer has teamed up with Elle UK in a giveaway contest for the clutch by Alexander McQueen, as seen on L.B.’s purple-polished hands. What a pleasant coincidence! Click here to enter to win. There’s only one winner, but if you are well heeled you can shop Alexander McQueen at farfetch.com

See more best dressed from the GQ event below. Despite the occasion, there were few male standouts.

Kelly Brook

Freida Pinto, wearing Christopher Kane

Gemma Arterton, wearing Louis Vuitton

Giles Deacon & Ross Kemp