Every woman wants to feel sexy and desirable, but should we really be defined by our handbags? Here are 9 reasons to stop carrying those logo-covered, designer handbags.

1. Ladies, let’s be honest, these handbags are ubiquitous. Everyone seems to have one these days! Do you really want to look like everyone else? They just aren’t that original, nor are they exclusive. There’s nothing unique about luxury goods sold by large multibillion dollar corporations focused on growth, brand visibility, awareness, and profits (how do you think they buy those full-page glossy advertisements in the fashion mags like Vogue?).

2. Is it really necessary to spend $1000 on a handbag? Really? This is a bag that’s thrown over your shoulder, and on the floor of a subway or a restaurant (and probably its bathroom), the movie theater, or the bar where soda, coffee, alcohol and who knows what else has been spilled, only to stain that expensive purse. As you get older and wiser, someday you’ll look back and ask: “Why did I spend all that $$$$ on those ridiculous designer handbags when I could have put it towards my kids college tuition, or invested it, or taken a trip of a lifetime?”

3. The replicas coming out of China are so good, no one can tell the difference between the real ones and fake ones! So, why bother with the expensive real one when people will probably think it’s just a cheap knock-off in the first place?

4. Flashy, luxury items are out. Subtlety and an understated lifestyle are in as the new face of luxury.

5. Thanks to award winning journalist, Dana Thomas, who called Louis Vuitton “the McDonald’s of the luxury industry” in her book, “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster,” the bags are now a running joke among top fashion industry designers because they’re so common these days.

6. Conspicuous consumerism is out. Saving is in.

7. Smart luxury consumers are tired of the logo-covered standbys because they are so 1999. Their taste has become more discriminating and they aren’t buying them anymore. How many handbags do you really need, anyway? Collecting more stuff is out. Collecting luxury experiences, though, is in.

8. Sorry ladies, carrying an expensive bag does not mean ‘you’ve arrived’ or are superior. Do you really believe that carrying an expensive handbag will deter other women from hitting on your man? (One study says this is true. Really?). Come on ladies you have more self-confidence than that!

9.  Let’s face it: oversize handbags don’t impress men. Women carry them to impress other women. When men see a woman carrying an oversized, expensive hand bag, they simply wonder and chuckle, “Is that an overnight bag she’s carrying?” And by the way, have you ever noticed that carrying oversize handbags hurts?! The weight starts to hurt your neck, shoulders and back!

Lesson: Feeling fabulous and desirable doesn’t come from a status symbol. Too many women make the mistake of entering a room with her handbag first, instead of leading with her gorgeous, confident self, with the bag in tow.

Related on EcoSalon

Freitag: Creating Sustainable & Upcycled Bags That R.I.P.

Mink Shoes: Couture Vegan Shoes For a Walk on the Wild Side

11 DIY Jewelrey Projects You’ll Love to Rock

 Image credit: wavelab.be

The post 9 Reasons to Ditch Those Logo-Covered Designer Handbags (They’re So 1999!) appeared first on EcoSalon.

Editor’s Note: This four-part series from a leading industry insider is authored under the pseudonym “Louise Lagosi” for the individual’s protection. The series addresses our engagement with consumer culture and how marketing and advertising can manipulate us – and society as a whole.

Whether or not you are aware of it, this image of celebrity Jennifer Aniston is embedded with psychological material. Her honey-blond hair and softly-lit, Photoshopped face is childlike and dewy. Her intense attention to the money in her hand while clutching her designer bag loaded with more cash oozes power, sex, wealth, and control. The photograph even uses markers to pinpoint these little features while at the same time promoting the items you might want to buy if you wish to look like this. Celebrity, eternal youth, power, wealth, sex: That’s what this carefully articulated image has to offer up for sale.

But at face value, what is it really giving you?

Now, look at these photographs. What do you see? Realize that any previously presented Anistonian aspirations are absolute nonsense. She’s an attractive woman to be sure, but she’s only human. Even Jennifer Aniston doesn’t live the life that Jennifer Aniston leads in the above glossy magazine image.

Presenting Jennifer looking average or even shabby is playing up the competitive side of our human natures, getting us to compare ourselves to her, picking her apart, and at the same time picking ourselves apart through the comparison. We’re being primed to react defensively to the first image: Go shopping. But, at the end of the day, what does Jennifer Aniston have to do with our personal lives, and why do we find ourselves looking at her and other celebrity personalities with the obsession that we do?

Stuck In An Advertising Ambush

Are we truly tired of the messages that ads and the media are sending us? If you’re falling out of love with your relationship to fashion and shopping in general, join the club. It’s still a small one, but it is rapidly growing as our living spaces and surroundings are cluttered with stuff while our credit cards are maxed out. We need very little and yet we seem to want so much. And everywhere we look we see both evasive and aggressive marketing campaigns which bombard us with advertisements on a daily basis, suggesting that we need to buy more to gain beauty, glamor and fabulosity. In fact, if fashion were a drug, it would be almost impossible to kick the habit; there are pushers on every corner.

President of the Marketing Firm Yankelovich, Jay Walker-Smith, stated in a CBS news article, “It’s a non-stop blitz of advertising messages. Everywhere we turn we’re saturated with advertising messages trying to get our attention. It seems like the goal of most marketers and advertisers nowadays is to cover every blank space with some kind of brand logo or a promotion or an advertisement.”

Research from the late 1950s to the 1970s has shown that the average person 40 to 50 years ago was exposed to somewhere between 78-500 ads a day. Walker Smith points out that today we’re exposed to as many as 5,000.

NYC The Blog reports on the first NYC subway train completely wrapped in advertising

The tipping point is coming. Do-not-call. Adblock. “We have to screen it out because we simply can’t absorb that much information. We can’t process that much data,” Walker-Smith notes, “and no surprise, consumers are reacting negatively to the kind of marketing blitz; the kind of super saturation of advertising that they’re exposed to on a daily basis.”

There’s even an advertising company, cleverly called Wizmark, that’s putting advertisements in urinals. “You can’t look left. You can’t look right. You have to look at the ad and listen to it,” Richard Deutch, CEO of Wizmark brags with tongue firmly set in cheek.

Buying Into Luxury Brand Ads

Over the last 20 years, the fashion industry has employed numerous marketing tactics to drive consumers into a shopping frenzy, making industry giants enormously rich. Investing in “brand strengthening,” companies cultivate consumer loyalty which equates to high numbers in sales, quite often, from returning customers who have bought into the message that the brand’s advertisements are selling.

Take, for example, one of the most competitive luxury brands in the world: Louis Vuitton. In 2010, Louis Vuitton spent some $14 million on advertising during the first quarter. Their ad campaign appeared all over the pages of luxury lifestyle magazines, news publications, and across the internet where affluent shoppers would see them while shopping. Surprisingly, it was not enough to stimulate their consumer demand because in 2011, during the same quarter, they increased their budget to $22 million ( a 57% budget increase). The steep increase in ad spend could hardly be considered a coincidence.

The above ads were just about everywhere you looked in New York City during the spring of 2011. Louis Vuitton employed a small army of campaign advertisements to seduce luxury consumers back after the Great Recession.

In 2010, Consumer Reports revealed a noticeable trend that consumers were changing their habits: Shopping less, saving more, and choosing products that they equate with craftsmanship, practicality, and social values (think TOMS shoes) rather than luxury status “bling”. Bling is out. The reports also revealed that this new trend was not likely to go away anytime soon; it wasn’t merely a reaction to economic pressure, this new consumer was an entirely different beast living by a new set of rules. All of those advertisements were the velvet-gloved iron fist of Louis Vuitton attempting to coax the mass of luxury and aspirational consumers back into their former position of brand submission.

If you took eight LV samples and stuck them in a trash compactor, out would pop this expensive little piece of “limited edition” baggage called the LV Tribute Patchwork Bag. This particular bag might have cost approximately $3000 to make, but was sold exclusively to only 20 customers (worldwide) for $42,000 a pop in select stores.

What’s $36 million in advertising? Chump change to a company like Louis Vuitton that wants to ensure a dominant market position doesn’t erode. (In 2011, LVMH, the company that owns LV, boasted in their company quarterly report net profits of over $2 billion in fashion and leather goods sales alone.)

If you’re selling logo-covered, luxury-status, vinyl-canvas handbags with the words “Louis Vuitton” stamped on them, you can charge consumers a premium. The price tag we see can be anywhere between 250-1400% of the expense of making even a very well-made bag. The more expensive price tags (in the $1000+ range) subsidize the basic vinyl tote bags Louis Vuitton offers in the hundreds, allowing the company to lure the aspirational middle class with “affordable” luxury.

To the luxury fashion consumer, the primary value is not in the the design, the materials, or even the quality of labor that goes into the bag – it’s in the social status that the advertisements and exclusive products offer to customers. And over the past 20 years, while there have been many consumers that have bought right into the dream, there are those conscious customers who have simply walked away. After all, who really needs another logo-plastered tote when there are already so many of them out there?

The post Fashion Marketing 101: The Pushers appeared first on EcoSalon.

Our guide to this year’s best fashion exhibits.

Did you miss the magical Savage Beauty exhibit at the MET last year?  Take comfort by buying the book – a showstopper in itself – and vow not to miss another this year. Curatorial staff are realizing the particular appeal of fashion exhibits and the increased ticket sales potential. If an article in WWD on how museums are “getting fashionable” is any indication, they’ve cottoned on. “There’s a loyal following — besides the fact that fashion is fashionable,” Pamela Golbin, chief curator at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris was quoted, “There’s something very intimate about clothes.” More and more new fashion exhibits are popping up here in the United States all over the world. Several exciting ones are due to debut this year.

Here are our top 10 don’t-miss fashion exhibits of 2012.

1.  Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada: On Fashion, opens May 10 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Featuring over 80 designs by Schiaparelli and an installation that will give the effect of the two designers being in conversation with one another on subjects such as art, politics and the role of women now and then. With director Baz Luhrman serving as the exhibition’s creative consultant this show promises to follow up on the success of last year’s groundbreaking Alexander McQueen exhibit.

2. FIT NY and the CFDA collaborate to celebrate Impact: Fifty Years of the CFDA at the FIT museum from the 10th of February through until the 17th of April. The leading trade organization of fashion designers presents a tribute to the creativity of American talent and will showcase designs from Halston, Norman Norell, Pauline Trigère, Geoffrey Beene, Bill Blass, Rudi Gernreich, Bob Mackie, James Galanos, Diane von Furstenberg, Oscar de la Renta, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Tom Ford, Michael Kors, Isabel Toledo, Rodarte, and Proenza Schouler.

3. Chanel: Designs for the Modern Woman at the Mint Museum Randolph in Charlotte, North Carolina continues thru February 26. Pioneering clothing that was comfortable, casual and enduring in its construction and style, Coco Chanel (1883-1971) remains a pivotal figure responsible for much of what is still considered modern in women’s fashion in the 21st century.

4. A retrospective of designer Christian Louboutin at London’s Design Museum opens March 28 – July 1 and promises to be as red-hot as his signature soles. The exhibition coincides with the publication of a coffee table book documenting Lobuoutin’s work. Mulholland Drive director David Lynch photographed some of the designer’s most fantastical creations and John Malkovich wrote the foreword.

5. If you are in London, you must check out Fifty Years of James Bond Style at the Barbican, opening in April. In addition to Mr. Bond’s Savile Row tailoring, expect to see  lavish Bond-girl finery by Giorgio Armani, Givenchy, Roberto Cavalli, Thierry Mugler, Miuccia Prada, Oscar de la Renta, Emanuel Ungaro and Donatella Versace.

6. Also opening in the 2012 Olympic Games host city is the sure-to-impress Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum 
running May 19, thru January 26, 2013. Featuring evening wear from the V&A’s vast collection of British designers, the exhibit will show a selection of royal ballgowns including a Norman Hartnell gown designed for Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Princess Diana’s “Elvis Dress” designed by Catherine Walker and gowns worn by today’s young royals.

7. Paying tribute to the legendary French designer Yves Saint Laurent — The Retrospective opens March 25 at the Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colarado. Organized thematically, the presentation showcases over 200 pieces that explore the full arc of Saint Laurent’s developing style and turbulent inner life.

8. If you didn’t catch The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk at the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas (runs thru February 12) head to San Francisco’s Deyoung Museum where it will run from March 24  – August 19. Dubbed fashion’s enfant terrible, his often provocative messages are enhanced by the sublime construction of his clothing.

9. Set to open on the last night of Paris Fashion Week, March 9, and run until September 16 at the famous Museé des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, the Louis Vuitton – Marc Jacobs exhibit weighs the careers of both designers. The show aims to compare their bodies of work and offers a potential explanation as to why Jacobs and his ready-to-wear approach could never replace Galliano at Dior.

10. Azzedine Alaïa in the 21st Century currently at the Groninger Museum in Holland and running thru May 6, celebrates the body-con creations of the great Tunisian-born couturier. Now in his 70’s, the designer recently became an outspoken proponent of slow fashion, saying “Four collections for women, four collections for men, another four collections to sell, and everything needs do be done within four, five months—it’s a one-way course towards emptiness. It’s inhuman.”

Top Image: Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty

The post From Azzedine Alaïa to Yves Saint Laurent: The Fashion Exhibits of 2012 appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnIn this new weekly column, we’ll take you inside the closets of some of our favorite people, asking them to choose one piece that defines them in some way and also, to tell the story behind it. To us, style is not about being a follower of trends, coveting this or that season must-have, it’s about carefully selecting pieces that deserve to be in your closet because they represent you. Personal style is something that lasts through years and fads — just like that favorite piece in your closet.

This Louis Vuitton purse is not the bag I wear the most and not even my favorite, but it is significant to me because it’s the first vintage piece I ever bought. It was 1997 and I was still living back in my native Sweden, a teenage fashion-lover who would read Vogue, ELLE and all those glossies, dreaming about a day when I could dress like that. Louis Vuitton bags had just started coming back into fashion and as I was standing in the second hand shop I recognized the signature pattern on the purse hanging next to me on the rack from a small picture I had seen in one of my fashion magazines. It cost 45 Swedish Kronor, which at today’s exchange rate is about $6.80, so I bought it, not really knowing when I’d have a chance to use such a grown-up purse (this was back in the day when small neoprene backpacks were considered appropriate for wearing to parties).

Nobody shopped in vintage stores back then and all my friends thought I was weird for doing so, asking things like “You buy old clothes?” To me, there was just something magical about it, methodically going through racks and racks of stuff until you find that one piece that just speaks to you. This joy of the hunt is what it’s all about for me. Shopping at department stores, where everything has already been sorted for you, distracts me. I get caught up in the image they’ve created and tend to forget what’s really me. At vintage stores, I never lose track of my own style and sensibility.

I have since found many occasions to wear my LV purse and I love it even more because it’s not one of their more common styles. One time, I had to have the clasp fixed after it came off during a long night of dancing, but otherwise it’s just gotten more beautiful with age. It was the first of many vintage finds that have found their way into my closet and for that it will always have a special place in there.

The post Closet Stories: My Vintage Louis Vuitton Purse appeared first on EcoSalon.

Haruku ballet flats (above) by Hetty Rose, made from vintage Kimono fabrics.

“Fashion is about two things: the evolution and the opposite,” was Karl Lagerfeld’s proclamation to press during a preview of his spring couture collection. I’m not sure he was referring to the flat and the wedge, but the Chanel model wearing pretty black ballet shoes with transparent ankle straps did appear a strike against a suddenly dated stiletto.

This season, it’s about choosing the thin edge or the wedge. The divergent shoe choice reflects an unusual unfolding between successive fashion era influences. The tunics and square-shouldered cuts are clearly inspired by the spare minimalism of the 1960’s, shown side-by-side with relaxed tailored ensembles informed by the free-flowing heyday of YSL in the 70’s.

From my recent experience of graceless clomping through Mumbai’s higgledy-piggledy streets, I can’t agree with Harper’s Bazaar’s assessment of the new platform as, “the hip, walkable flat wedge.” It is, however, the only option for anchoring the billowing looks of the 1970’s. Flowy is one thing, floppy, another.

I’m sticking with last summer’s wood wedges with tan leather straps and studs from Celine’s standout collection. They’re the perfect balance of polish and rustic, and justifiably informing many similar looks this season.

Coclico’s Morphos Wolf Wedge (above) in soft grey suede.

For those of us not blessed with a high instep that naturally makes wearing high-heeled shoes comfortable, the return of flat shoes in the form of ballet flats and oxfords is welcome news. The lack of height and weight of the shoes requires a tapered leg and streamlined silhouette. While a nude oxford updates black skinny jeans nicely, the tight silhouette of the ballet flat provides a risk-free point of accent for injection of this season’s trend for neon hues. Bright yellow, orange and red are key colors for shoes and bags this season.

Vegetable tanned leather megumi ochi style 1984 taupe oxford (above).

The ingenious use of stripes, novelty prints and color blocking as seen at Louis Vuitton, Jil Sander and most arrestingly, Prada, are influencing accessories designers too. If you, like me, are irrationally tempted by the trend for pink jeans as soon as the weather thaws, a bright red ballet shoe would amp up the look.

Recycled Babylon Flat (above) in red, by Olsen Haus.

The post Shoes for Spring: The Edge vs The Wedge appeared first on EcoSalon.

According to the 2007 WWF Deeper Luxury Report, the luxury industry lagged behind other brands of consumer products when it came to sustainability. They claimed the cause to be lack of consumer awareness and public demand.

The report ranked a number of companies that included Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Hermes on a sustainability scale, and no companies were given a score higher than a C+. Many brands even failed to get a passing grade.

Three years ago, this report was thought to be the tipping point of the industry. After all, many luxury consumers are increasingly well-educated and concerned about social and environmental issues. Yet the luxury brands were missing out on opportunities to become sustainable leaders.

So where do luxury brands rank today? Particularly the luxury fashion brands?

The answer is not an obvious one. In fact, it is very difficult to uncover the luxury fashion companies who are demonstrating ethical excellence. Given the increase in multinationals who report on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) behavior, it would seem that either luxury brands are slow to engage, or they are doing a poor job at communicating what steps they have taken toward sustainability.

Is it accurate to say that consumer awareness and public demand is still at fault? Or is it that executives have simply become complacent? There are likely a number of reasons why this sector has a poor track record.

But let’s start with the sustainable luxury consumer. Who are they? Let’s face it, they are not you and I. Rather, they are a small percentage of the population who, by definition, can afford indulgence. They are not driven to consumption by necessity, but rather out of pleasure.

I’m not convinced that the reason for this sluggish shift is entirely due to a lack of consumer awareness. It could be that the luxury consumer has simply become accustomed to a lifestyle of waste, and can’t be bothered to make any changes in their shopping habits. Given the resources available to them, awareness is at their fingertips. So if they are truly hungry for sustainable luxury brands, they should know where to find them.

But maybe they are truly concerned consumers, keen to indulge in products that have a lighter environmental footprint. The only obstacle they face, however, is the lack of options available to them. Certain sectors are undoubtedly leading the way in the world of sustainable luxury. There are many options for the home, the car, and even travel. It appears however, that it is the luxury fashion industry that is digging in its heels.

So if its not about a lack of consumer awareness, it may have something to do with the complacency of companies – particularly those where there is a generational gap in decision-making. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it right?

Wrong. Clearly it is broken. The reality is that we cannot continue to deplete our earth’s resources at the rate of those before us.

We must all come together in this crucial paradigm shift, and luxury brands have the ability to take a leadership role.

According to Graydon Carter, editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair: “For the new generation, luxury brands that will not take environmental issues into consideration will lose most of their appeal. Modern brands must address these questions. Ignoring them would be old-fashioned and would equal a return to the previous century.”

If we all aspire for luxury, then the same could be said of sustainable luxury. Will our younger generations flip through Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines, ogling ads for sustainably made Chanel bags, or hemp silk gowns by Versace? Possibly. One can only hope.

Images: chad davis, dr_vaibhavahuja, Sarah McD

The post Sustainable Luxury: An Emerging Trend? appeared first on EcoSalon.