Stirrup Tights

When I was little, I thought stirrup tights were one of the fugliest things ever invented. Now, I'm kinda digging this whole stirrup tights with pumps look. Digging it so much I think I'm going to go out and get me some stirrup tights. Okay...I'm bored at work so I'm going to order some online...like, right now...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! Hope you got everything on your WANT IT NOW list!!!

PS: Its not too late to all pitch in and get me these pretty Loubs :) I think I might die without them...

Small Gift From Chanel

About a month ago I was invited to participate in an online survey for Chanel. Pretty basic survey questions (ie what do enjoy about shopping at Chanel, what can Chanel do to improve your shopping experience, who are your favorite designers, what were your last purchases at Chanel etc.). Today I received a small gift from Chanel as a thank you for taking the time to help them out. Its a small bottle of Coco Mademoiselle and my name has also been entered in a drawing for a large black leather 2.55. Obviously, I would be on cloud nine if I actually win the purse but I dont have my hopes up cus I usually have terrible luck when it comes to things like that. Anyways...I wish more design houses would do surveys like this. Then I would be able to stock up on free gifts...HAH.

Shoe Addict?

I think I might be confusing some of my readers. I know the title of my blog is Purse Addict but I also know many, many of my posts are about shoes. Its cus I want it ALL!!! My real love will always be purses but sometimes its just cheaper to occupy myself with shoes cus it boils down to $800 vs $3000. Anyhow, I'm on a shopping ban anyways so theres absolutely nothing I can buy until further notice :P BUT I still found some new shoes to lust after. I WANT these YSL platform sandals!!!! They're sorta like the new Tribute sandals. Chances are I wont end up getting these cus at $795, I'd rather get the Louboutin Alti pumps ($825) but that doesn't mean these aren't fun to look at. They also come in the usual array of fun colors from YSL so if you like them just as much as me and are not on a shopping ban, go gettem before they sell out!!!

Saddle Up

I blogged about my Dior Saddle bag way back in November of 07 and back then it had been sitting in my closet collecting dust. I gave it to my mom since I figured she might use it more than me and to be honest I didn't really miss it. This weekend when I went home for my hair appointment, I forgot to bring a clutch with me. I hate bringing big bags to the salon cus theres never really a good place to put it and so I've made it a habit to bring clutches since you can just have it on your lap. Anyhow, I was whining about what to do about my purse situation and my mom told me to take the Saddle bag since its pretty small. My hair appointment went great and I found myself loving my Saddle bag all over again. Although its dated, I think it'll be nice to take out at night. The beige canvas with brown leather combo wouldn't really do for my dressy nights out but it'll work for the more causal dinners and what not.

Style Envy

Its no secret Rhianna has some serious style. She can pull off looks/pieces that no one else can. The Burberry necklace she has one looked a bit odd during the runway show (Burberry Prorsum F08) but she manages to wear it beautifully. Perfect complement to her short hair and black suit. This outfit is a great example of how to rock out your more simple pieces by adding on edgy accessories.

Interesting?

Blogging has been slow...maybe cus I'm sick and have absolutely no energy or maybe cus I'm on a shopping ban and I've been avoiding temptation or maybe just cus I'm lazy :P In any case, I thought I'd share some of these interesting Loubs I found. Interesting as in I'm not sure what I make of them...I dont totally hate them (okay, some of them I do hate...) but I'm not totally dying for any of them.


These are obviously Louboutin's version of his own creation for Rodarte. I have to say, his shoes for Rodarte were way more fierce. I dont hate these but I probably wouldn't wear them...


Okay, these I hate. They look like something you can get from Payless...


I never really liked the boots version but now in comparison, the boots make SO much more sense than this peep-toe version...

I've been trying to envision what these would look like when you actually have them on and while I think I have a good mental image in my head, I'm still not sure whether I like them or not...


These I think upon first glance are pretty ugly but if you were them with a nice evening gown, they wouldn't be so bad...

Watta Steal!

Sorry the pic is so small :P Anyways, the Lanvin Hurrah Satchel is on sale at BNY for $489 down from $1950!! Thats like Saks sale good!! Although the Lanvin Kansas days are over, the Hurrah Satchel is classy and with such a simple design, it'll never go out of style. White leather is hard to take care of and I usually avoid buying things in white but with sucha good deal, you can use the money you saved to go out and get some leather protector for this pretty Lanvin bag :) The chain can be adjusted (like the classic Chanel flap bags) and I think its a good contrast to the rest of the bag. If youre not on a shopping ban and have been wanting something from Lanvin, order this from BNY online TODAY!!!!

If Only...

If only I wasn't on a shopping ban (I've officially run out of excuses to do any more monetary damage...), I would buy the following in a heartbeat:


These remind me of those Prada pumps that were out a few seasons ago but its Lanvin and you all know how much I love my Lanvin shoe boxes :P Ugh, I seriously might go ahead and get these today cus they're driving me crazy right now...


These Versace MJs are too cute and I like these better than the runway version that went for $1100. I'm also seriously tempted to get these...

The Uptown always makes me sigh when I try it on in stores. Its probably a little too MILF-looking for a 24 year old but its sucha classy and sophisticated bag!!

I've purchased way to many shoes and purses this year (I might do a post with an official count of how many pairs of shoes and bags I bought in 2008...) and yet I still want more :( I know, I'm greedy.

Sale Of The Century...

*WARNING: THIS IS AN EXTREMELY LONG POST…*

If you have been hiding out in a cave for the past week, then perhaps you didn’t know that last week Saks had a BLOWOUT SALE. By BLOWOUT I mean, 40% plus another 50% on shoes and handbags. Yea I know. There was a lot of speculation as to why Saks decided to mark down designer goodies so drastically and while I’m not sure what the “official” reason is, I’m just damn glad they decided to do it. While Saks never publicly announced the sale, word leaked from a few of the SAs who alerted their best customers who went ahead and alerted their best friends, who went ahead and alerted their best friends, and so on and so forth. How did I find out about it??

Around 5pm Wednesday (11/19/08), I was driving home from work when I got a call from DZ. She explained she had stopped by Saks after work and was completely shocked to find the shoe department in complete mayhem. She told me shoes were everywhere and that I basically needed to get my ass there ASAP. I zipped through LA traffic and got to Saks at around 5:15pm. The shoe department was an absolute mess. Shoes were lying everywhere, nothing was left on the shelves or display tables, empty shoe boxes lay abandoned on the floor, and there were hundreds of women trying to find/try on/buy shoes. There was hardly room to walk and all the SAs were ready to pull their hair out as they tried to do 20 things at once. I realized that it was going to be extremely hard to find a pair of shoes (not only were all the good shoes gone, none of the SAs were even to help you because they were busy helping out 10 other customers…) and so I wandered into the handbag department. I talked to one of the SAs there and she said that handbags start on Thursday but she was willing to pull anything that I was interested in off the shelves so that I could get a head start. With sucha good deal and sucha accommodating SA, I went ahead and got the YSL Majorelle bag in fuchsia. When I went back to find DZ in the shoe department, she had managed to find a pair of Louboutin Scissor pumps in purple suede. Since she had the box and the matching pair, she was one of the lucky few who managed to score shoes before the store closed. When I asked the SA who was helping her how much the shoes would come out to be, he said probably around $200ish. Yea, I KNOW…I practically fainted. We made plans to come back the next morning cus the sale was just too good to pass up…

DZ and I got to Saks Thursday (11/20/08) morning about 40 minutes before the store opened. There were already a few women lined up at the doors and by 9:45am, a whole crowd had congregated outside the door. I was getting irritated at the women who were in front of us because what had started out as 2 girls had turned into a flock of 20+ people. Whatevs. When the doors finally opened, I was surprised that no one was running. I did my best speed-walk and got to the Louboutin table as fast as my little legs would carry me. Once there, I just started to grab any shoe that looked decent. Unlike the other shoppers, I wasn’t picky about the sizes cus I knew I could always just ask the SAs to check if other sizes were available. By the time I was done searching for shoes, DZ and I literally had our arms FULL of Louboutin shoes. I can’t even begin to tell you the dirty looks we were getting from everyone else. Sorry but you snooze, you lose! We quickly took our pile of shoes to a deserted part of the floor and begin to separate out which shoes needed bigger sizes, which needed smaller sizes, and which were good as is. During this whole time, there were SO many women walking by trying to grab any shoe that we happened to toss aside and we got a lot of “Are those ALL yours?!” and “Are those ALL your sizes?!” to which we replied “YES and YES!”. When we were finally ready, we took a deep breath and headed back towards the crowd and started looking for any available SAs. We got EXTREMELY lucky. I was able to snatch a guy who worked exclusively with us until we had all the shoes that was in our pile. He refused to help anyone else and patiently went back and forth looking for each shoe in the size that we asked him for. Again, our growing mountain of Louboutin shoe boxes got attention from all the other shoppers who either gave us dirty looks or looks of complete awe. Finally after we had all the matching pairs, we went back to our deserted area and began to try on all the shoes and after about an hour of first stepping into the sale, we were ready to pay and get the F*CK out of the madhouse. In short…DZ AND I KICKED ASS. We executed our plan PERFECTLY and was the envy of all the other women vying for shoes that day. We took a quick peek at the handbag department and it wasn’t much better. Almost all of the bags were gone and women were walking around with 4-5 bags around their shoulders. I was happy with what we had gotten at the shoe department and decided enough was enough.

Friday 11/21/08: Rumor had it that Chanel was going to be on sale and by all accounts, Friday was even crazier than Thursday. DZ went at around noon and wasn’t even able to find parking. She said Chanel was insane and there were reports of fights breaking out!!!! I’m not sure why people were gathered in the Chanel boutique because by all accounts, everything was gone in less than 30 seconds…

Saturday 11/22/08: Since I had to go to Beverly Hills that morning to pick up my Bottega special order, I decided to stop by Saks with DZ in the morning. We arrived around 9:30 am and there was already a decent sized crowd waiting outside. When the doors opened, there was plenty of pushing and shoving. Most of everything was sold out but the line for matching pairs went out the door. As for the handbags…THERE WAS NONE. Absolutely nada. The Chanel boutique, the Gucci boutique, and the main handbags department were completely empty. All the on-sale handbags were already sold out and due to disrespectful bargain shoppers, Saks had decided to pull all of the full price handbags off the shelves as well. DZ and I stayed for about 15 mins since we figured we had already gotten great pieces for great prices.

Monday, 11/24/08: My SA was nice enough to call me to give me an update on the sale. She said she can’t even begin to explain how crazy its been. At the moment they were sorting the pre-sales by last names. She assured me that my stuff was safe and advised that if possible, it would be best to wait until next week to pick up my items. She said Tuesday was for sure going to be complete chaos. As much as I appreciated her call, I knew that I just HAD to go on Tuesday. I was almost dying from paranoia and anticipation. There were so many stories going around about how people were losing their pre-sale items. I just couldn’t wait any longer and plus, I really didn’t want to risk losing my stuff.

Finally today, Tuesday 11/25/08, we were able to pick up our loot from the INSANE pre-sale. DZ and I got to Saks around 9:30 am and of course, there was already a line outside. Just before the doors opened, one of the managers came out and promptly told us that there were no more shoes or handbags on sale and for people picking up pre-sales, we had to stop by the designated tables. And so we went in. *Sigh* How can I even begin to describe the experience?? I was about to start throwing punches out of claustrophobia and frustration. The retarded people at Saks thought it was a good idea to put the table for shoes right at the entrance. Basically if there had been an earthquake or fire, we would’ve all been trampled to death. Second of all, they designated TWO people to help FIVE HUNDRED eager women. WTF?!?!?!?!?! Why couldn’t they have placed the table farther down the floor and given us at least some breathing room?! Why couldn’t they have scattered more tables across the entire floor?? Why couldn’t they have had more people helping ALL OF US?? Anyhow…basically DZ and I lucked out once again since we were towards the front of the line. When you get to the table, you tell the lady (who by the way couldn’t even correctly record names down…) your last name, how many pairs of shoes you got, and how you paid. She then hands over the slip of paper with your info on it to one of the many hired runners. The runners go down to the basement to locate your stuff and to finally bring you the items that you fought long and hard for. It was the same deal in the handbags department.

As I write this, I can’t believe JUST HOW MUCH ENERGY AND TIME I put into this sale. Like seriously, this was crazier than anything you could ever imagine. While I love everything I bought, I have to say I was disappointed at how disorganized this whole sale was. I guess I can’t really blame the SAs because they were caught off guard themselves. I actually really feel for them. My SA was sweating up a storm when I went to speak to her after all the chaos. The sale was a final sale but a lot of people didn’t know that. Sucks for them cus they were just buying and grabbing whatever they could get their hands on because they figured they could just return it…I guess theres always eBay : P A lot of the handbags also didn’t come with dust bags. There was just too much going on for the SAs to worry about finding matching dust bags for all the bags. However, it really irked me that my Majorelle would be sitting “naked” in my closet and so I found my SA and asked her for a dust bag. She was nice enough to find a Bottega dust bag for me…hey, its better than nothing!! She also made sure that the sensor was taken off of my bag. I’ll definitely be going back to her for all of my Saks purchases from now on. All in all…this was the sale of the century and I’m SO glad I got what I got and that its OVER. After going to Saks every damn day for a week straight, I don’t plan on going back there for awhile. I think I’ve got the whole floor plan of that place memorized…

My regrets? While overall, I think I excelled during this sale, I do regret not buying the YSL Tribute and Bottega clutch on Wednesday when I had the chance. Oh well…

And finally…some pics of this whole crazy experience:

This is what the shoe department looked liked Saturday morning...if you look closely, you see the screens at the very back of the picture. Behind the screens is where they kept all of the pre-sales that were sold using Saks card only. The space that those pre-sales and screens took up added to the claustrophobia that we faced Tuesday morning...

The above two pics were what the main floor handbags department looked like. There was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THERE...it was as if Saks was closing...

The Chanel boutique was also completely empty and blocked off.

Happy group pic of my loot from the sale. The above picture represents a weeks work of energy, time, stress, anticipation, paranoia, excitement, etc

YSL Majorelle

No Prive in burgundy glittart

Ron Ron (100) in brown glittart

Scissor pumps in gray suede

New Simples in patent teal

I know this post probably wins the award for longest post ever but seriously after all that, I still dont think I can correctly impart on you what exactly it was like to go through this sale...INSANE I tell you, ABSOLUTELY INSANE...

Finally!!!!!!!

After months and months of waiting, my Bottega special order FINALLY arrived!!!!





The wait was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO worth it!!! I was jumping up and down while I was at the Bottega boutique and all of the SAs were congratulating/laughing at me :) Ever since the color Turbulence came out for the Spring/Summer 08 collection, I've been talking non-stop about it. During the Spring/Summer 08 collection I thought the small Campana would be fine but when it actually came, I was a bit disappointed at the size. I went ahead and ordered the large Campana in Turbulence around late July and now its finally MINE!!!! The best part?? I'M THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD WITH THIS BAG (in this size, this style, this color)!!!!! Bottega special orders are 30% more than the regular retail price BUT guess what?!?!?!?!? My SA skipped the 30% increase since my wait had been longer (due to the August holiday in Italy)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This bag totally made my day...I haven't been able to stop smiling :) To go ahead and special order this bag will probably go down as one of my best shopping decisions EVER. I love the color, the style, the size, and of course...the buttery soft leather that is Bottega Veneta.

BTW...the lighting sucks in my apt so it was really hard for me to take pictures of my bag so that the real color would come out in the pictures. The pics above were all taken at different lightings but hopefully it gives you an idea of what the bag looks like...

Purty

It may be kinda hard to tell from this pic (and you have to ignore Madonna's green dress) but isn't Rhianna's eyeshadow color extremely purty?!??! I dont really like the dress she has on but the brightness of her eyeshadow is stunning. I would probably be a little self-conscious wearing eyeshadow that bright but she does it so well :) BTW...if you click on this picture, it should enlarge it so you can get a better look at what I'm talking about!

What Do You Think??

You probably heard by now that LL recently got floured by animal activists for wearing a fur shrug. When I was younger, I remember being horrified when my dad told me about people waiting outside of Saks in SF with red paint to douse any shoppers who walked out with fur. While I personally would never ever wear real fur, I totally disagree with people who take it upon themselves to ruin other people's prized possessions. I think you have the right to not wear fur yourself and you have the right to voice your opinions but you dont have the right to control what others wear or how they spend their money and you certainly dont have the right to destroy someone else's property. I know this is a very touchy topic but what do you guys think?? Do fur wearers deserve to have their fur pieces ruined??

Reunited

Back in May of this year, I bought the Louboutin Somewhere pumps. By June I had returned them. I just couldn't justify spending $700+ on a pair of shoes that weren't all that comfortable. Plus I had bought 4 other pairs of shoes that same week. Anyhow...BNY put the Somewheres up for sale this week for 40% and guess what??! Yep...we reunited. I know, I know...if they weren't comfy the first time around, why buy them now?? Cus they're beautiful shoes sold at an incredible bargain price thats why :P





These bring my shoe total to 4 for this sale season (1 pair of Chanels, 2 CLs, and 1 Lanvin)...I think its time I give my wallet a break :P


LOL...this pic is for you IC!!! You always laugh about how big Libby is...yep, my 10-pound baby can no longer fit into my CL shoe boxes :P She still loves to try though (and Olivia likes to watch and learn)...

I Suck At Gift Giving

But I think I did okay this time. I know Christmas is more than a month away but I found my mom the perfect Christmas present...



This Bottega zip around wallet!! I saw it at BNY and was shocked to find it on sale for 40% off. I bought my zip around wallet a few months ago and I absolutely love it. I knew there was no good reason for me to buy it for myself but I figured it would be perfect for my mom :)


Heres her new wallet side-by-side with mine. Pretty color combo huh?


And here it is with my Bottega trapezoidal hobo.

Me And My Shoes

While purses are my first love, I also have a thing for shoes. Especially during sale season. This is my chance to stock up on incredible shoes once offered at unjustifiable prices. Take these Lanvins for example:




I first saw these at Barneys way back when and I remembering gazing longingly at them on the display stand. At close to $1000, there was no way I was going to buy them but as luck would have it...I found them on sale at some random store in Vegas (Shoe In at the Wynn) this past weekend. They were on sale for 40% off and well, you know me...can't pass up a bargain!! I actually did my happy dance in the store...yep, thats how excited I was :) I think the thing about finding great shoes on sale is to always keep your eyes and options open. When each season begins, mentally take note of the pieces that you love but can't bring yourself to buy because of the steep asking price. Patiently wait until the sales begin (May and then again in November) and start looking for the pieces that you had once lusted over. More than likely, you'll end up finding those shoes on sale (usually 30-40% during first cut). Nowadays, I only buy shoes for full price if I know they're going to sell out before the sales or if they're a style that I know wont go on sale. This plan of action has worked wonders for me and it'll probably do your shoe collection some good :) And as always, my cats had a blast playing with the new shoe box...