Coco Chanel Handbags Outlet

Handbags: The Power of the Purse

by: Anna Johnson

Amazon Price: $7.92 (as of 05/30/2012)

The Bolide. The Plume. The Birkin-object of lust in Sex in the City. Celebrating the must-have accessory for the fashion conscious woman, HANDBAGS is an obsessive, irresistible visual extravaganza, featuring over 900 full-color photographs of the most luxurious, witty, covetable, talismanic examples of the bagmaker's art and history.

The iconic Herm%uFFFDs Kelly bag, made from first stitch to last by a single craftsperson. Judith Leiber's whimsical minaudi%uFFFDres, Moschino's smiley-face bag, Elsa Schiaparelli's surrealist "bird cage," and the ne plus ultra of fashionable purses-the Chanel bag, reinvented for a new generation by Karl Lagerfeld. There are novelty bags, evening bags, sculptural bags, and class acts. Practical leather pochettes to carry a life, and elegant little reticules for nothing more than a credit card and a lipstick. Profiles of famous bagmakers: Jamin Puech, Kate Spade, Carlos Falchi, and the poet of utility, Bonnie Cashin, with her visionary "Cashin Carry" bags for Coach. Plus the anonymous Florentine artisans whose specialist leather workshops sprouted up in the 14th century.

A labor of love written by Anna Johnson, author of Three Black Skirts, HANDBAGS features over 900 bags from collections, museums, and designers around the world, most of them photographed in seductive full-color exclusively for the book. The perfectly matched complement to Shoes, HANDBAGS is about fashion, about desire, about secrecy, craftsmanship, art, and imagination as well as about the changing roles of women-everything that's packed into every important bag. Includes timelines, fascinating captions, and the "It" bags-anyone for a Fendi baguette?

One size does not fit all!
A big celebration of those containers in which we store all manner of useful things we think we'll need away from home, & which we hang from our arms & shoulders. This book comes in a handy bag-sized packet offering photos of the spectacular, the artsy, the bon ton & the whimsical.

The names of the handbag makers read like a who's who of haute & not so haute couture - from a 5th century Scythian pouch to Priscilla Snyder's Dragon grip. From European almsbags to imperial beaded evening bags; from pocket books & long pockets from 17the century American women to tapestry French bags & Ottoman reticules from the early 1800s. From pirate chests of the 1930s to wicker bags of the 1950s. From the supercalifragelistic colors & patterns of the 1960s to the leather & tooling of Turkey. From a Hermes saddlebag to a Vuitton bucket shoulder bag of today, see what has inspired & who have crafted these essential accessories.

A fascinating, informative, colorful & well presented archive. -- Rebecca Brown, Clallam Bay, WA United States