California Apparel News

A crop of new handbag designers has put a different spin on the classic accessory, the leather handbag. Styles vary from classic and sophisticated shapes to rock ’n’ roll–inspired designs laced with fringes and studs.

Alexis Hudson

Emily Ironi, president of Los Angeles–based Alexis Hudson, wanted to create a bag that was stylishly appropriate for any occasion.

“It’s a bag for a lifetime,” Ironi said. “You don’t really need to go and keep buying more and more handbags when you have an Alexis Hudson bag.”

Her hobo and barrel-shaped Italian leather handbags, in pebble-grain and embossedsnakeskin finishes, caught the eyes of buyers from Henri Bendel in New York and Planet Blue in Malibu, Calif. For Fall 2005, the line’s first season, Ironi said she has yet to walk away from an appointment without an order. Wholesale prices range from $160 to $260.

Ironi sweated the details to achieve her vision of the “everything” bag: a userfriendly accessory with keychain clasps, pen and cellular phone pockets, zippered pockets and hidden magnetic closures that keep essentials in place.

The handbags are available in silver and gunmetal snakeskin, black, winter white, and a best-selling denim blue with solid brass original hardware and braided strap details. Ironi is adding a copper-penny brown color for her Fall collection and a new drawstring style for Holiday.

For more information, call (323) 654-2225.

Cocoblanco

New Jersey native Jules Schrager’s Cocoblanco handbag line is a balance of extremes reflecting the designer’s bicoastal background.

Schrager developed software for New York fashion companies, including Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan, before settling in Malibu, Calif., two years ago to nurture a creative ambition in fashion. Cocoblanco combines the severe New York style of nickel and brass hardware with Malibu-appropriate bubblegum-pink and citrus-green colors.

“There are elements of the bags that are feminine and girly,” Schrager said. “There are other elements that are hardcore and rock ’n’ roll. That’s really our style.”

For Holiday, Schrager is offering embossed crocodile and python skin and muted- gold, muted-silver, white, rose-gold and tan leather with colored pigskin suede lining. For a one-of-a-kind feel, buyers can place custom orders by hand-picking the leather colors to match or mismatch the lining.

Wholesale price points range from $150 for a clutch-sized handbag with a pointed flap and ring hardware to $600 for a calfskin tote with embroidery and zipper pockets.

For more information, call (310) 486-0847.

Treesje

Sheila Dardashti and Laura Osborne, designers of Beverly Hills– based handbag line Treesje, wear the standard Los Angeles uniform of jeans with comfy tanks or T-shirts nearly every day. But their embellished handbags, with exotic trims on treated leather, pack loads of style and turn heads.

“From day one, we decided that our accessory line is going to be the outfit that you wear,” Osborne said.

Though many of the handbags bear the names of Los Angeles streets—including “Fairfax,” “Melrose” and “Topanga”—the designers said they are more influenced by their international fabric hunts than by local scenery.

Dardashti said many designers source fabrics from the textile trade shows in Los Angeles and New York but Treesje’s carefully scouted trims and fabrics from Europe and Southeast Asia are hard to find on other handbags or clothing in the market.

For Spring, the duo is moving from the metallic foil leather treatments of the Fall collection toward a natural look with snakeskin and satin and pastel-colored fabrications. Embroidery, shell, wood, sterling-silver and bead embellishments have a feminine and romantic feel.

Wholesale price points start at $89 for clutches and go up to $260 for larger, more embellished styles.

For more information, call (310) 927- 4421.