Just another version of one of the coveted Proenza Schouler bags. We have introduced you to nearly every version of the Proenza Schouler PS1 that has been released and this one is not much different. Main difference is the size, this is the Proenza Schouler Extra Large PS1 which not only is larger but also moves the price tag up into an extra large number. I prefer the medium size but if I am being completely honest with you I really just want the Crocodile Satchel. The chocolate suede looks scrumptious. What are your thoughts on the size? Buy through Net A Porter for $2,350.

Ladies, the Real Housewives of New Jersey ain’t got nothin’ on the Real Housewives of Atlanta. If you had forgotten, let the first episode of their second season remind you: the heat down here makes people crazy. It’s 10:30 in the morning as I’m writing this and it’s nearing 90 degrees outside – you’d get upset quickly too.

Maybe I have a special place in my heart for the Atlanta housewives because all of their shenanigans go down in my hometown, but I can’t help but think that they’re probably my favorite ones. I had a brief love affair with the New Jerseyites, but their reunion left me kind of glum and unimpressed, whereas the Atlantans have never done anything but delight me with their awfulness. And don’t get it twisted – that’s what we’re all here for.

And my Atlanta compatriots didn’t disappoint in their premiere. Since we saw them last season, alliances and residences have shifted, relationships have ended, and they started things off in the only appropriate way: a fight where a grown man had to be physically removed from his place of business, lest he punch Sheree in the face.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The first person we see is NeNe and her gay bestie Dwight, in her new house. We get the Atlanta news here in Athens (we’re only about an hour away), so from time to time, we get to see the Real Housewives covered like they’re actually people that matter. I seem to remember a news report from months ago saying that NeNe and her husband had been kicked out of their rented house, so it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not this house is theirs or provided by their benevolent benefactors at Bravo. Either way, it’s time to decorate and Dwight manages to do some really awkward hand motions with a bottle of champagne in the process of making mimosas during the “design consultation.” Mmmm, mimosas… Anyway, NeNe is still my favorite. A friend of mine met her at the bar at the W Hotel in Atlanta and said she was EXACTLY THE SAME in person. It’s not an act – NeNe is actually insane. He also said that the shoes she was wearing were fierce. I would expect nothing less.

The next person we see is Kim, pulling up to the Psychic Shanty in a drop-top white Bentley. The Bentley apparently predates her breakup with Big Poppa (who is widely believed to be redonkulously rich Atlanta denizen Lee Najjar; Google him if you are so inclined), since Kim still apparently has no job and currently has no boyfriend to pay her bills. She says that Big Poppa “betrayed” her, but one has to wonder what she expected – she was his mistress. Apparently the powers of fidelity are not strong in that one. But the powers of the checkbook are, so, ya know. Her psychic tells her that there is a business deal and a son in her future; I doubt the former and wouldn’t at all be surprised at the latter, if she found another rich man to mess around with. The first rule of gold digging is that the best way to keep the money flowing is to have a kid. Kim may be a moron, but she knows that for a fact. Also, her hair is looking slightly less polyester than it was last season. Golf claps. She’s looking to start her own wig line, which has to be one of the most profoundly idiotic things I’ve heard in my entire life, but she makes a cursory visit to a beauty school to check out the technical aspects of the hair industry anyway. She flees within the hour – apparently she realized she’s wasting valuable time that she could be spending trying to find a rich man to BUY her a wig line.

Another person displaced from her home is Sheree – her deadbeat ex-husband stopped paying the mortgage and she got evicted. She also claims that he’s 19 months behind in child support. If both those things are true, then that’s genuinely pretty crappy, despite my general distaste for and irritation with Sheree. They’re his kids too. Her divorce has been finalized since the end of last season, and she most certainly did not get the “seven-figure settlement” that she kept talking about; apparently it wasn’t even close, and apparently it’s being contested. Despite that, she intends to throw an “independence party” for the sole purpose of getting people to talk about and think about and pay attention to HER. She is going to hire a poet to write a poem about her and recite it for her friends. I WISH I WAS MAKING THAT UP.

And then there’s Lisa, who still appears to be the relatively sane member of the group (particularly since Deshawn was dropped for being boring and drama-free) despite some significant crazy-making at the end of last season. She wants to have another baby with her very attractive husband, but doesn’t know if she’ll be able to get pregnant at 38. I’m sure they’ll have fun trying.

Lisa’s also friends with our new housewife, Kandi Burruss, who may be the only housewife to have a legitimate, successful career and not depend on a man to fund her lifestyle. She was in the 90s girl group Xscape (with TI’s girlfriend Tiny, who has her own reality show over on BET that’s worth a look), and after they broke up, she went on to write and produce songs for TLC, Mariah Carey, NSYNC, and Destiney’s Child. She won a Grammy for “No Scrubs,” which is one of my favorite songs from back in the day and still has a home on my iPod. She has a daughter and is about to marry a man with six kids. Yep, six kids. Seems like a huge red flag, but she appears to have her head on straight and her priorities in order, so I at least hope that they weren’t by six different women. Still, visions of Jon Gosselin dance in my head…

Now that we’re updated on what’s been going on since we last saw our housewives, let’s get to the drama. As anyone that has ever known someone like her probably could have guessed, Kim has done or said something to piss off pretty much every member of the group. She and NeNe never did sit down to have that glass of wine that the promised to have, and Kim continues to talk about her around town. Sheree, who had gotten to be BFFs with Kim at the end of last season, has realized that she’s been doing the same thing to her. Lisa still hates her, and that doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon. While at Niecy Nash’s birthday party, NeNe and Sheree bond over the common hatred of Kim and later meet to bury the hatchet and join forces in plans to set her polyester hair on fire.

But the real drama is at the very end – remember that party Sheree was planning? Well, her party planner goes absolutely off the rails at her because she calls to ask some questions about accessories at the party. The show is edited to make it look like the freak out comes after just one call for clarification of the party plans, but I’m willing to bet that Sheree is the sort of client that will call you a dozen times a day, first thing in the morning, in the middle of the night, and on the weekends to ask about her party. I worked tangential to the party and wedding planning industry for about a year before starting at PurseBlog, and clients like that are more common than you would think. Sheree seems like she would be the worst of the worst – she’s resolute in the idea that the world does indeed revolve around her, and if she’s paying someone to do something, she should be able to treat them however she sees fit.

Which is not to say that the party planner’s reaction was reasonable – it totally wasn’t. He’s a grown man, and he had to be physically removed from the conference room by the office’s staff before he was successful in beating the crap out of Sheree. Forget about Teresa from Jersey – I thought this guy was going to flip a conference table at Sheree over her saying that his “connections” weren’t good enough. As Stephen Colbert would say – Real Housewives of New Jersey, you’re on notice. The Real Housewives of Atlanta aren’t here to mess around.

Tory Burch toughens up her line of handbags with a bit of rocker studded chic. We love these studded Tory Burch handbags. There are many options for studded handbags this fall and Tory’s collection fuses classic silhouettes with contrast gold pyramid studs. The tailored shapes will pair nicely with a daytime outfit consisting of this fall’s uniform of leggings and ankle boots. Available in a variety of designs the Tory Burch group of studded bags includes several styles available in black and cognac.

Beginning with the Studded Tote with gold hardware and double rolled handles comes with an adjustable leather strap making it perfect for a daytime bag for the office. Next up the Leather Studded Messenger Bag is also made of a luxe vegetable tanned leather and features a cross-body strap as well as a front flap and interior pockets with space for a cell phone and other essentials. The Tory Burch Leather Studded Shoulder bag has a detachable strap for converting into a clutch and makes the ideal daytime bag. The Studded Flat Wristlet adds a petite dash of stud embellished cool to evenings out, Lastly the Tory Burch Studded Vet Tan Leather Satchel a fabulous roomy bag is bound to be your go-to bag this fall. The entire collection is reasonably prices from $235 for the wristlet up to $595 for the satchel.

Shown top left to right clockwise:

Tory Burch Studded Tote, $495.00 at Shopbop.com
Tory Burch Leather Studded Messenger Bag, $575.00 at Bloomingdales
Tory Burch Leather Studded Shoulder bag, $395 at Net-a-Porter
Studded Flat Zip Wristlet, $235.00 at Toryburch.com
Tory Burch Studded Vet Tan Leather Satchel, $595.00 at Neiman Marcus

via The Find

It’s rare that I see a technique that I haven’t seen used somewhere before. After all, I spend 40 hours a week (sometimes more, depending on how inefficient I am) looking at handbags; if a weird leather trick or a trim idea or a shape is out there, I’ve probably come across it out of professional necessity at some point. To a certain extent, there is nothing new under the sun – designers rip off each other and their own brands’ design history as much out of necessity as anything.

Which is part of the reason that I like the Salvatore Ferragamo Studded Jazz Satchel: the petal effect of the cut leather is not something you or I see every day. It’s incredibly intricate (and for the price, I certainly hope it was done by hand) without taking away from the essential function of the bag, which is a trick that not all designers execute skillfully. Usually I’m not a fan of brown, but in this case, keeping the color neutral and unobtrusive was the wiser decision. Although, now that I think of it, the tiny studs are silver – wouldn’t this bag be cooler in black? It looks less industrial this way, though, and maybe that will appeal to a wider customer base. Still, black version? Please? Or maybe not, since it’s so hideously expensive that I can’t buy it anyway. Buy through Luisa Via Roma for $3845.

About a month ago, the Purse Blog team attended the Kayne West Shoe launch at Louis Vuitton Bal Harbour. We did not leave with a new pair of sneakers, but I left crushing on a new handbag. One of our favorite SA’s at LV (the entire staff at LV Bal Harbour is amazing) showed me a new clutch that I adored. The Louis Vuitton Sobe Clutch is the all-around perfect attention getter. The patent leather appears liquified and the LV signature in golden brass finishes the clutch off beautifully.

The original Vernis bags were named after streets in downtown NYC. When I first saw the name of this clutch I wondered if Louis Vuitton named it after another famous city, South Beach. After talking with my SA at LV today I can confirm that the Sobe clutch is indeed named after South Beach, which is perfectly fitting for this clutch. All about style and easy to take out into the nightlife, this clutch is nothing but hot. Fergie wore the much loved belt that accompanies this bag to the LV show last month. Size is 4.3″ x 10.2″ x 2.2″. Buy through Louis Vuitton for $895.

On the one hand, I think the JCrew Lugano Leather Suitcase is really pretty. It looks really well made, and J. Crew’s website says that it’s manufactured by some big-deal Italian manufacturer called Dell’Ga. I’m sure they’re awesome, and I’m sure this is a wonderful suitcase. BUT IT’S BASICALLY WHITE! I know the color is called “stone,” which implies that there’s some grey to it, but still. Almost white. And a decent-sized suitcase seems like it would be the single most impractical thing in the world to manufacture in such a light color.

Airports are disgusting (at least to me) in pretty much every way imaginable, and I don’t like putting my cheap duffel bag on the dirty conveyor belt to be checked, let alone a nearly $2000 piece of nearly white handcrafted luggage. It also doesn’t have any little wheelies on it, meaning you’re lugging it by yourself, and it weighs nearly nine pounds when completely empty. The price, the color, and the lack of functionality lead me to only one conclusion – these bags are made for those that have OTHERS that see to it that their luggage arrives safely at their destination. Buy through J.Crew for $1800.

I can’t wear heels. I won’t get into the story of exactly why because it’s gruesome and I don’t want to ruin the next few minutes of your life, but suffice it to say, heels are not an option. Also, I can’t wear most knee-high boots because I have enormous calves, and most designers don’t embrace the big calf market. So my ability to appreciate and enjoy the new over-the-knee-boot trend is limited to merely watching from a distance, so that’s what I’m here to do: which of you girls out there have jumped the bandwagon and bought them already, and which of you plan to later?

If ever there was a pair of shoes that was worth an astronomical price tag, it’s these. The construction of a shoe that will cover that much of your leg has to be so precise and well-designed that I’m not sure how well this style will fair at retail. One of my favorite pairs so far is the Yves Saint Laurent Over-the-Knee Boots since they have a bitch of stretch and will be more forgiving on more leg structures. If you can pull it off, though, I think you should absolutely go for it – maybe with some tights and a tunic for maximum boot exposure.

And what type of handbag should be worn with these boots? Probably something with a simple, clean design, although the size would be negotiable depending on whether you were rocking them during the day or night. The most important thing to remember with a shoe like this, though, is that what you’re wearing shouldn’t compete with them. So are you going to wear them once the weather turns cold? Buy through Saks for $1745.

We know, we know. We’ve written about the Diane Von Furstenberg Stephanie Hobo ad nauseum. Surely, some of you are sick of hearing about it. Too bad! We’re not sick of writing about it quite yet, particularly when they’ve just released a gorgeous silver version for fall.

Personally, I think it’s brilliant; the gold was warm and sunny for summer weather, and the combination of steely light and dark silvers that go into the fall version would look great against winter’s dark, woolen clothing. It’s bright without being inappropriate for the season, and the suede trim makes it an even better idea. This is definitely on my short list for must-have fall bags – grab it before it sells out, because it absolutely will. Buy through ShopBop for $875.

We have been covering Jimmy Choo quite a bit lately on Purse Blog. Jimmy Choo was once only known for their shoes, but over time the brand has transitioned beautifully into the handbag world. They have had some ugly misses, but when they hit it, they do so beautifully with bags that continue to get attention season after season. I am on the Jimmy Choo bandwagon but I am just not sure that the Jimmy Choo Odetta is part of my train.

Amanda covered the Jimmy Choo Odetta previously and quite liked it. I looked at that bag then and now and I am still totally undecided. I am decided on the fact that I would never buy this bag for myself, but I am undecided if I am liking it. Something about the strap detailing rubs me wrong. It looks like a Y, making some previously think it was a YSL bag. When I see it on the mannequin I begin to like it more, as I can see how the bag looks being carried. It is larger than the photo alludes and looks much better with a slouch as it is held, so that takes it up a few points. I suppose I just do not entirely get it. Care to help me hop on the train with this one or should we leave it at the station? Buy the black pebbled leather version through Net A Porter for $2095 or the ponyskin version for $3295 via Net A Porter.

The Roger Vivier RV Shopping Tote is the perfect example of two handbag design principles that I believe to be true. First, that you don’t need to over-design in order to have an interesting bag. The lines of this tote are incredibly sleek, but the precision shows a great deal of care and thought were placed in to them. The leather-covered semi buckles that form the handle attachments are the perfect finishing touch, and the mirror the buckles that Vivier is so famous for in their shoes. It’s not overpowering, but it’s there, and it’s successful as a design element.

The second principle that this bag demonstrates is that when you have great leather to work with, you don’t need much else. Deciding to cover the hardware with the bag’s material instead of leaving it as metal was a great decision - it gives the bag a continuity that metallic hardware would somewhat diminish. The material used on this bag is amazing - it’s simultaneously matte and a bit shiny, it has a natural texture to it that hasn’t been erased in the tanning process, and the color is somewhere in a middle ground between brown and olive green. With so many basic thing’s working in the its favor, there was no need for the designer to employ any kind of gimmick to make this bag stand out. Buy through Luisa Via Roma for $2118