I. Am. So. Excited. April 10, 2009

Have I got great news for every single vegan, vegetarian, eco-conscious, and socially conscious fashionista out there. But before I get to the good stuff, let me make how much I myself am relishing this news crystal-clear.

When I was a baby, I had booties in every color of the rainbow. At age two, I had a red velvet winter cloak with white faux fur trim (despite living in steaming-hot LA). Up until I was about five and my rambunctious younger brother’s antics started placing more demands on the adults, I had a slew of adorable little outfits, several with matching bags (yes, even at that tender age), all handmade by Grandma. I LOVE beautiful clothes and accessories.

To this day, I dream of having one hell of a shoe closet. I imagine gorgeous shoes neatly displayed on library-style shelves (made of salvaged wood and painted with no-VOC paints, of course), with handbags (and my shocking-pink Schiaparelli hat box) displayed on the top shelves like a collection of priceless objets d’art. A watercolor painting of my favorite red handbag hangs on the back wall, its subtle color variations set off by a gorgeous vintage chandelier (do they make CFL bulbs for chandeliers?).

You get the idea. And if you love ethical fashion, you may have harbored a similar fantasy yourself. I know several of my friends have.

(A superficial goal? Well, yes. But let the record show that a. it’s far from being the only thing I want to accomplish in my life, b. I DO in fact care about serious environmental and social issues, and c. have touched on those issues in this blog in the past and will continue to do so in the future. If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution.)

That fantasy is now a few steps closer to coming true, and not just for those lucky few veg*ns with trust funds or high-paying jobs.

When Matt & Nat, long the mainstay of fashionable, decent-quality vegan bags and wallets, started raising prices, I didn’t bat an eye. As a retailer, I get to see and handle the samples in person before placing orders, and immediately noticed the materials and workmanship were both of significantly better quality than in the past. One gets what one pays for. (Case in point: I have, courtesy of eBay, a pink Mini Manhattan made way back when Matt & Nat was still using shiny vinyl. There’s a reason those bags used to be dirt cheap, and one look at that bag will tell you why. As adorable as it is, it’s definitely a cheaply-made bag.)

When Matt & Nat bags started getting close to the $300 mark, however, the veg*n market balked. The bags were better than ever (it was the first season we didn’t have to send back any items with faulty zippers) and greener than ever (courtesy of really nice recycled materials). But, people who were used to paying $95 for a PVC bag didn’t like the idea of paying $285 for an updated version of the same bag, even if the hardware was much more reliable and the fabric was made of recycled plastic. I can’t blame them, but I can’t control what my suppliers choose to do, and fashion companies have to actually make a decent profit to keep doing new and innovative things.

A few months ago, I discovered Matt & Nat had a new line in the works: Samsara. Today, we received the Samsara autumn/winter catalog in the mail, and I squealed so loudly I’m pretty sure they heard me in Montreal.

The Samsara collection will come in two finishes (patent and pebble), and features a mix of new designs and a few that were clearly inspired by earlier Matt & Nat bags. They are gorgeous, and one of the available colors will be a great shade of red. Bonus: for every bag sold, Samsara will donate one dollar to the Enough Project, the Canadian Women’s Foundation, Earthsave Canada, or the WSPA. I can’t wait to get these on the shelves – and I’m tempted to order an extra “Martin” bag in red pebble for myself! (Sorry, ladies – I will not be posting pictures today as I lack a scanner.) The best part? All items in the range will retail for $28 (for a coin purse) to $155 (for a large bag). Beats spending $350 on just one thing, right?

If shoes are more your thing, get ready to scream.

I also got one of the trade papers in the mail yesterday. In it was a pretty decent roundup of eco-friendly labels…and five of the six featured brands are all-vegan! (I was also pleased to see the editorial staff held off on the snotty attitude they’ve previously taken with eco-friendly and vegan brands. Finally, a little respect!)

Beyond Skin, a British company which makes gorgeous animal-free women’s shoes, is introducing a new line, Beyond Skin Sole, which will be quite a bit more affordable than their primary line or the fancier Sui Generis range. To my British friends, Beyond Skin is relatively inexpensive, but when the exchange rate, duty fees, and shipping from the UK to California are taken into account…ouch. Were it not for that, I’d have had them on the shelves two years ago. But, the new line should run from $100-120 retail, which is more than reasonable for such beautiful good-quality shoes.

Charmoné and Olsen Haus continue to do what they do best, but as they’ll still run up to $250 retail, I’ll have to take a better look at them after the recession is over. Neuaura, of course, are already on the shelves, but they will be even more comfortable than the current collection, and there just may be a men’s line in the works for future seasons! (I know what I’ll eventually give my boyfriend for one of his birthdays…good thing he trusts my taste in clothes.)

My favorite piece of news comes from Mink Shoes, a label based in LA but handmade in Italy. The line is moving more toward 100 percent sustainability (let’s see a cheapo brand do THAT), with increased use of organic materials (gorgeous ones, not just coarse undyed hemp). Even better, the company wants to eventually bring the price point down to a VERY reasonable number. Who knows if that will happen this year, but if and when it does happen, I’ll be waiting…and the store shelves will be ready. (I’m dying to buy the strappy red velvet “Cat” sandal pictured in the article, though I do wish it had been available a few years ago, as it’s definitely made for prowling!)

So…if you love gorgeous shoes and bags that happen to be animal-friendly (and worker-friendly – all the suppliers listed are also opposed to sweatshops), you’re in for some fun when the fall-winter collections start to arrive at the end of summer. (I now get more excited about fall shipments than I do about my own birthday, which has fallen on a delivery day for the past two years.)

And now I have to wonder how I will ever LIVE until September.

Mini Update/The Perfect Bag Quest March 4, 2009

Online pal Before Wisdom recently relayed some of my shoe knowledge on his own blog. See, ladies? Someone out there agrees with me that you CAN be veg*n and as stylish as you want to be.

Vegan Porn (disclaimer: no actual porn) is back, but you have to be invited to join – contact Jason via Taste Better. (Believe me, I am not complaining. The old site, while good, was prone to the occasional troll infestation.)

I just got off the phone with my mom. I helped her sell some of her old Matt & Nat bags on eBay last year for extra cash, and she couldn’t remember if I’d sold her black Fiona bag or not (I did – very successfully, since it was in near-mint condition).  It’s going to rain a bit, and Mom’s not about to use her usual bag – a black Harveys seatbelt satchel – because it’s not waterproof. Hence the search for the old, waterproof Fiona bag.

This led to a discussion of why various bags aren’t quite perfect for either one of us. I love my Chuchai purse, but the flat shape and lack of exterior pockets make everything pile up at the bottom. Mom loves her Portman bag, but it’s on the long side and she sometimes accidentally bumps people or things with it. (Apart from the added weight being an issue, I don’t at all mind big bags myself. I’ve noticed people tend to give women with huge handbags a much wider berth. Which is why I’ll always keep my big, bright orange Sherlock bag for times when I must battle crowds – it’s the bag equivalent of a large traffic cone.) My adorable Mini Manhattan bag and Harveys carriage baguette are only suited to days when I’m carrying as little as possible (but I love them!). It would be great if our Oslo and Avril bags had shoulder straps. You get the idea.

Which makes me wonder – does the perfect bag even exist?

Realistically, the idea of a “perfect” handbag is somewhat subjective. I’ve met teenage girls who only want a bag juuuust big enough to carry a tiny minimalist wallet, their house keys, and a tube of lip balm. Fine, good for them (though not too useful after high school). Professional women tend to want big, sturdy bags that can hold everything (though some very successful women also love to buy impractical, expensive bags to display their status). Moms often look for bags that have enough compartments to hold a few toys, snacks, and a well-worn copy of “Madeline”. Fashion fiends are more concerned with silhouette, color, label, and whether some D-list celeb has been photographed carrying it. Grad students want a bag that can hold file folders, a notebook, and a textbook in addition to the basics.

Still, some criteria are almost universally desired.

• Zipper or magnetic snap closures are always a good idea (open bags attract pickpockets).
• Neutral linings, whether plain or patterned, are well received (bright ones draw attention to your stuff, and patterns can hide stains from spilled makeup).
• Adjustable shoulder straps are widely appreciated, especially since not everyone is the same height or wants to wear their bag up high or down low. (Bonus points for the strap also being detachable.)
• Bags should be wide enough to make searching through them relatively easy, but go too wide and the wearer may knock someone over. Shallower, flatter bags are appreciated more in markets where mass transit is used by all social classes.
• Two or more inside pockets, zippered or not (preferably one or two of each), are always appreciated, as are keychain tabs.
• Versatility is good. In the old days, women changed their bags when they changed their outfits (several times a day), but very few people do that now (really, who has that kind of time?). Now, if a bag can go from work to the library to having drinks with the girls, it’s a keeper.

There are things I like about all of my bags, but when I really stop to think about it, none of them are completely perfect. Which tells me I really should get to work trying to design The Perfect Bag, if it is in fact possible to do such a thing. It’s not like anyone else is doing it – accessory companies are making a killing not because they’re making ideal products (though some of them are making great stuff) but because they’re making good products that aren’t QUITE perfect, which keeps consumers buying and buying…searching and searching for that one bag that just might be worth all the trouble. It’s sort of like planned obsolescence in electronics.

Sneak Previews (of sorts) September 10, 2008

One of the most fun parts of my job is buying the next season’s stock.

It’s also one of the most challenging.

Some suppliers will send a sales representative to the flagship store, but for others I have to go to the trade shows or visit a showroom. The semi-annual World Shoes Accessories trade show in Las Vegas can be a lot of fun (despite the heat, secondhand smoke, and lots of walking in one or two convention centers plus the Venetian), and beats printing line sheets from the store computer. I did skip it this summer, though, because of schedule issues.

Other challenges involve putting aside what I’d buy for my personal wardrobe and taking a stab at what will sell best. No store can stay open for long if it isn’t making enough money. Despite the popular image of vegans and vegetarians as tattooed young hipsters or scruffy aging hippies, I have a lot of somewhat conventional, middle class customers with very ordinary jobs. What can they wear that looks professional enough for work, nice enough for dinner with Grandma, or fun enough for a night on the town? There’s a certain amount of guesswork involved, based in part on current trends and based in part on what has sold well or poorly in the past. I’ve stopped carrying certain things that I assumed would sell but didn’t. One glaring example was vegan cowboy boots. It took a year to sell 24 pairs, most of them on clearance. I won’t make that mistake again.

Deciding how many of something to buy can be challenging, too. If it’s something we just have to have but which not everyone would like, we’ll do one or two. If we’re sure something will be popular we order more. Sometimes bags have to be ordered in pairs or quartets, and one shoe supplier will only sell us shoes in case packs of 12 to 15, so we have to keep that in mind, too. It can get a little frustrating when we sell out of one size (usually 8 or 10) right away and then can’t get more because our supplier only made so many packs.

So, on Monday I got to preview the Spring 2009 Matt & Nat collection. It’s a good thing I’m not too far from LA, since I had to drive to the Fashion District downtown, park in a paid lot, walk a few sweaty blocks to the Cooper Building (it gets really hot in downtown LA), and find the showroom.

I already printed one of the look books from the store computer, but a) the printer has a tendency to distort colors, and b) sometimes it really is important to see the actual merchandise. This is especially the case with bags. The two sides of the Portishead bag, for example, tend to flop open when the bag is not being carried, and a lot of people don’t like that. I wouldn’t have bought as many as I did if I’d been able to see the actual bag first, but there was no area sales rep at the time and I couldn’t go to the trade show. Fortunately, the new version of the Portishead will have a tab with a snap closure, eliminating the problem.

The showroom was a sleek, modern space that was easily bigger than my flagship store. Not to mention posh – not all showrooms have Eames chairs and Parsons tables. I’m not about to tell you *everything* (yet, anyway) but I will give you a few clues:

• Japanese paper bags will be back again, and in some great colors.
• A fabric similar to Japanese Paper will also be incorporated.
• While big bags are not going anywhere, not all of the spring bags will be as huge as in recent seasons. A few will be downright dainty.
• If you like the antiqued or pebble-finish faux leather, don’t wait for too long to invest in one.
• Over the next few seasons, expect the company to delve deeper into recyclables and sustainable materials. Matt & Nat intends to eventually move away from PVC.
• Guys: bags designed with the animal-loving metrosexual in mind will be available in the first-ever men’s bag collection. (I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner, given that the company was founded over 10 years ago and by a man.) Some of the bags are gender-neutral enough to share with your sister, too.

So, this weekend I’ve got to go over my notes and decide what to order, and the fall collection hasn’t even arrived yet. Maybe it’s for the best; inspecting and tagging bags is a big job and it couldn’t hurt to get the ordering out of the way.