Perfect Handbag for Spring 2010!

In the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly in Silicon Valley, California Casual has been the definition of fashion in this tech-heavy area of the world. The individual style of Silicon Valley residents is influenced by the workaholic culture surrounding the start-up company and high-tech industries. Bay Area residents who work in Silicon Valley are no stranger to long hours. They have always gravitated towards more casual dress for professional settings as well as on personal time. The professional culture of the valley combined with the fabulous weather has created the perfect environment for California Casual to be born decades ago and continue to develop over time. This is why it comes as no surprise that fashionistas in the Bay Area are drawn to Balenciaga Handbags, also lovingly known as “Bbags.”

We are unique style setters in the Bay Area. Our politics, our culture and our diversity have created the perfect style vacuum for individuality. This is why Balenciaga handbags are so perfect for fashionistas here in the Valley. Balenciaga handbags became popular when the “motorcycle” handbag became an “IT” bag a decade ago. Worn on the arm of many celebrities, Balenciaga’s motorcycle handbags became a must-have for any style savvy and edgy fashionista. The fabulous part about Balenciaga’s handbags is that they never tire season after season. The Italian fashion house delivers bright and fabulous colors season after season to keep enthusiasts continually wanting more.

Balenciaga delivers their motorcycle style handbags in many shapes and sizes. The popular small version is known as the “First,” followed by larger styles called “City Tote” and “Part-Time Tote.” These are just a few of the many sizes that Balenciaga offers as a choice. In addition to various sizes and shapes, Bbags come with different types of hardware: Regular Hardware, which are small, dark rivets and Giant Hardware which has a more glam look to it and can be found in silver, gold and rose gold. You can also find Giant hardware in “Covered Hardware” which is hardware covered by leather to match the handbag. The regular hardware handbags come with edgy tassles that not only look really cool but function as zipper pulls. The Giant hardware styles do not have the tassles, they have more traditional, leather zipper pulls.

Bbags are known for their amazing colors and soft, squishy distressed lambskin. The color saturation on the handbags are not found on other designer’s handbags. This is something that is unique to Balenciaga and keeps Bbag lovers coming back for more season after season. It is very easy to collect handbags from the same color group just by varying the size and hardware choices. No two handbags in your collection will look the same, even when they are all shades of purple! In Fall of 2009 Balenciaga had a color choice called “Tempete” or “Storm.” This was a fabulous chambray blue which is straight off the runway for Spring 2010. Any girl who was able to snag this color is very lucky since it is next to impossible to find unless you look in the secondary market. But, if you were not able to snag the “it” color of the season, last season, never fear! Spring 2010 brings more fabulous colors to Balenciaga’s handbag line in addition to traditional colors, such as black, anthracite, Sahara (beige) and brown. The hot colors for Bbags this Spring are Cyclade (turquoise), Outremer (bright blue), Papeete (rich, dark seafoam), Sang (cool red), Tomate (cool orange) and Sorbet (bright bubble gum pink).

So, pretty soon all Bay Area Fashionistas will have their very own Bbag. The popularity continues to grow, and since the Valley doesn’t seem to be moving away from California Casual any time soon, the time to grab one of these fabulous handbags is now! After all, they encompass everything we are about; forward thinking, edgy, casual yet glamorous and individual! Who could ask for anything more?

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Traveling with Scents

The Bay Area, and most of the nation for that matter, has been suffering from strong winter weather. Dealing with heavy rain and snow can make any fashionista hungry for a vacation! Some people will be heading up to Tahoe or Yosemite to enjoy the winter snow pack while others will be hopping on a airplane to warmer climates. Whether you travel by plane, train or automobile the common problem every fashionista will face is how do you pack your favorite perfume bottle? If you travel by airplane, you may not be allowed to carry-on your favorite scent. Unfortunately, packing your $100, $200 or even $300 perfume bottle in your suitcase that will be checked is not ideal. We all know what happens to our checked baggage! The tossing of the suitcase along with the threat of your suitcase being on the bottom of someone else’s 5000 pound baggage can cause even the most carefully packed glass bottle to break. Not only will you lose your precious perfume but everything in your suitcase will be ruined! Thankfully perfume houses have come up with the perfect solution for scent-savvy fashionistas everywhere. The solid perfume.

Solid Perfume has been around for several years, but lately more perfumiers have been creating solid versions of their best selling scents. Marc Jacobs has put his famous scent “Daisy” into a fun daisy style ring that flips up to reveal the solid perfume. Marc Jacobs and Estee Lauder have also put their solids into jewelry such as necklaces. Bond No. 9, the famous New York perfume house that is known for it’s original scents that are inspired by various New York Burroughs has a pretty, gold compact that fits easily into your purse or pocket. There are even recipes on the Internet in places such as “wikihow” that help you make your favorite scent into a solid for your convenience. This is a great alternative to buying the solid perfume as they can run in price from $20-$100+. Whatever your choice, make sure you have at least one solid scent on hand for traveling, your gym bag, your handbag or anywhere you might be in need of smelling fabulous!

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Solid Perfume shown here; Nuits de noho by Bond No. 9

Bay Area Fashion History strikes again!

Fashionistas in the San Francisco Bay Area are no stranger to the history of blue jeans. The gold rush brought immigrants and Americans from the East Coast to California which in turn found a new population in San Francisco and the city’s outlying areas. Blue jeans were invented by Levi Strauss due to the dire need for strong pants that would not fall apart in the gold rush country. The actual fabric originally came from France and was known as “serge de Nimes” which was a strong blend that included wool and silk. Levi Strauss imported the fabric and used it to make blue jeans. In 1873 Levi’s invented the stitched pocket and added rivets to the pants in order to make the seams strong. The denim fabric has been traced back to the east coast where a cotton version of the fabric was produced as early as the 1700’s and was used in Northern Italy for clothing. Levi Strauss brought denim jeans to the world as the fashion industry and world population knows the popular pants today.

The history behind denim and jeans in general is what makes this Spring 2010 fashion season so exciting for fashionistas in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not only is part of our local history a mainstay in fashion, but this season it is bigger than ever. Soon, fashion savvy locals will be wearing fabulous denim dresses, shorts, jackets, handbags, shoes and tops. This is in addition to all of the fabulous traditional jeans fashionistas everywhere will be wearing. The Paris, Milan and New York runways showed denim in all of it’s glory and in various shades of beautiful blue. A lighter version of denim known as Chambray also dominated the runways. Denim dressing is not only comfortable but practical as well due to the durability of the fabric.

When the fabric of denim is popular, so is the indigo color that is a defined by denim and it’s lighter sibling Chambray. This fabulous and very wearable color is also called Chambray. It is a pretty and soft medium blue that blends well with most colors and fabrics. The color is so wearable that it tends to hit the runways more often than other colors with the exception of black and white. Fashionistas everywhere can expect to see leather handbags, shoes, belts and other fabrics sporting this amazing blue color.

Since denim and chambray have traditionally been mainstays in the American wardrobe, this is a great trend for fashionistas to stock up on. Do not be afraid to buy every denim piece you love and can get your hands on. Denim is always a wise investment and always in style. Be fabulous, Be Bay Area and buy denim!

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