AJ's Collection Thread!!!! <3 RM, Bal, Chloe, Treesje

[AJ1025]

Well, I'm having a slow Saturday night, so while I'm catching up on Breaking Bad in preparation for the premiere on Sunday (squeee!!), I've decided I'm finally going to do something I've been planning to do since I joined TPF about 18 months ago: post a collection thread!

I'm mostly into Rebecca Minkoff and Balenciaga, and beginning to get into Chloe, but I have some randoms thrown in as well. My phone is definitely on the 'barely' side of adequate, so I'll likely redo all photos once I get around to actually buying a respectable camera, but for now, I thought I should stop putting it off

Going to start with a group shot of each bag, then solo shots of all. So, here goes!

I'll start with Rebecca Minkoff, because it's my first love, group shot below:

 

[AJ1025]

I've been seriously into Rebecca Minkoff for about 2 years, and I . . . dabbled before I got obsessed. I like big bags, so the MAB is my go-to day satchel- I love them! I'm down to six in my collection currently (well, 9 total, but 3 are currently loaned out, so we'll just count with the ones I have at home today!) and I had fun getting them out and shooting them today. . .

Blacks first! I'm down to only two black MAB's now, through some careful, sad culling of my collection: my BBW MAB and my Quilted Black MAB. I really love both and I like that while they're both black, they each had some added interesting detail that lets me pretend I'm not totally boring for carrying neutrals!

 

[AJ1025]

Now the reds! I have 3 MAB's in the red family: Cranberry, Fire Engine and a Wine Leather/Suede. I adore all three and of them, the Cranberry has the best leather, I think, super soft and smooshy and very durable. That said, I carry the FE MAB the most often, because I'm obsessed with pop reds!

 

[wey]

great colors.

 

[AJ1025]

The crown jewel of my MAB collection is my Deep Turquoise Zip MAB- I normally don't love gunmetal hardware but this bag is completely perfect. The deep color is very bright and vibrant in natural light and it's a very unique looking bag, all-told. The color and hardware are so strong that the bag looks almost masculine and definitely very bad ***, which I love. I included a wide shot below, because the bag happens to be the same color as my pillows.

Also, a note about the setting- bags are displayed on the couch in my office, which is really an area for all kinds of finished and unfinished projects I'm in the middle of. The couch (and the sock monkeys!) is one such project (I'm in the middle of stripping the wood frame and refinishing it), so it looks a bit worse for the wear- don't judge me!

 

[AJ1025]

great colors.

Thanks, wey!

Some group shots of the MAB's below:

 

[AJ1025]

Now, the MAC's and shoulder bags! I'm not a huge clutch user, but I feel like MAC's are staples of any collection- they're such a perfect size, so easy to get into, just . . . awesome. These aren't in very heavy rotation in my wardrobe and I try to keep my MAC collection to 2-4 because any more than that and I feel like it's wasteful, because I just don't carry them as regularly as my MAB's (or my large Affair).

I tend to like bright pop colors for clutches- I've had the yellow ostrich MAC the longest and it gets the most play.

 

[AJ1025]

Two very recent acquisitions are my Large Black Quilted Affair and my Forever Clutch, which just arrived yesterday from the MyHabit sale. I adore both these bags- the Large Affair is really a better size for me than the MAC and I never looked twice at it until a couple of months ago, when all of a sudden, I couldn't get it out of my mind!

Like with my MAC's, I'll wear the chain strap doubled with the Forever Clutch, since I'm not much of a crossbody lover.

 

[AJ1025]

That's it on the RM's, though I have a couple joining the family when they arrive next week. . .

I'll move on now to Treesje, with a bit of explanation first: I was obsessed with Treesje in 2007/8, particularly the Asher. I love the braided handles, the smart pleats, the size, the colors and leathers- a perfect bag, I always thought. Since then, I've bought and sold many Treesje's and now have my collection culled down to what I consider the 'essentials'. Honestly, I don't like Treesje's new designs and I think the overall quality of their work and product has drastically diminished in the past few years- I still love a few of the other designs that I don't currently have in my collection (the Avalon, the Turner satchel, in particular), though. My collection is down to two Metro clutches, a regular sized Asher and an Asher Grande.

The Metro clutch, to me, is the most perfect strapless clutch known to man- it's simple and powerful looking, not too girly, but plenty of visual interest. I love them- anytime I see one for a reasonable price in a color that I don't have, I'd snap it up, but this hasn't happened recently . Both the Asher and the Asher Grande are great kickaround bags that still look polished, even though both are somewhat worse for the wear at this point.

 

[AJ1025]

Moving on to the late, great Goldenbleu . . . I love their clutches, but I've again culled my collection down to just my two favorites. Goldenbleu made a lot of really beautiful satchels, which are really my favorite type of bag, but for some reason, I have never found one that worked for me. Just their clutches, of which I still have a large red patent coin-purse clutch and a foldover cream patent clutch- forget the official names of both, but love them nonetheless.

 

[AJ1025]

Since I'm powering through, I'll move on to Balenciaga. . . my true handbag love . Since I got my first Bal about 18 months ago, I have been totally twitterpated by their incredible colors and leathers, the perfect design of their satchels, particularly the Work (a miracle of modern design if there ever was one), and forever on the hunt for my next one. I've bought and sold some great Bal's this year (including a GGH Coral Vermillion PT, a Charbon GGH Flat Clutch, an RH Pourpre Work and on and on) and over the year, I've realized that I really love the regular hardware best. I think I'll likely add one or two with the mRGGH, GGH, or mGGH (when it's available) in the future, but for now, it's all RH beauties below!

I'll start with my Work's, since they're my favorites. . .

 

[AJ1025]

^^^ My 09 Black RH Work and 07 Vert Gazon RH Work. The black one started off as Charbon and was dyed by it's previous owner- it's my beater Bal and I freaking LOVE it. It's just about as soft as my other Bal's, jet black and I don't worry about taking it out in adverse weather, setting it on the ground, basically throwing it around thoughtlessly- the hard living makes it look even better!

The Vert Gazon Work is a semi-recent acquisition- I'm not much of a green-wearer. Being a blond Italian with a warm skin tone, wearing green tends to make me look . . . red. But this color was one that I couldn't resist and 07 leather is my absolute favorite!

My 07 Tomato Work, below, was my true Ultimate Holy Grail- I searched high and low for two years, since way before I ever considered actually *buying* a Balenciaga, I wanted this bag. Luckily, my personal Patron Saint of Balenciaga's, our very own MAGJES, decided to part with hers several months ago and I was lucky enough to take it off her hands. Words cannot describe my love for this bag and I'm filled with delight and joy every time I carry it- it's by far my favorite bag in my collection, bar none. Can you tell I'm into reds?

 

[AJ1025]

My two remaining non-Work Bal's are my 08 Marine Weekender and my 07 Sienna Part Time, both courtesy of wonderful TPF'ers.

The Marine Weekender is one of those bags I felt drawn to in a handbag-destiny kind of a way . . . before the past couple of years, I didn't travel much for work, but recently, that's really picked up. I used to have a Mandarin Work that I bought from Bag Passion, that I loved but could not keep clean and ultimately had to part with, and when I was buying that bag, I noticed that BP had this Marine RH WE that was. . . intriguing. I don't know why- I'm not into navy, it's an impractical size, but for some reason I kept thinking about it and would go back to the site constantly and 'check' on the bag. I could not stop fantasizing about owning it, but by the time I was ready and financially able to pull the trigger, it had been sold . So about 6 months go by and one of my fave Minkette's posts the same bag for sale on Bonz and we managed to arrange a trade (for my old Anthracite GGH WE, which I adored)- once I opened the box, I knew I would never seller this bag because it was totally meant to be! I love the Marine WE and carry it pretty regularly, not just for travel. The leather is incredibly soft and if it's not stuffed, it slouches down to nearly the size of a Work.

My Sienna Part Time was a quicker find- I spent a long time figuring out which Bal Brown I really wanted and which style. I'm not into brown bags, generally, so I knew it would need to be really special- I was inspired to start my hunt for the Sienna PT by Bal goddess CeeJay's collection thread, because hers was SO stunning. Well, turned out I didn't have to look long, because she decided to let go of that very bag and was kind enough to pass it along to me. I love it- it's a perfect, carmely brown and the leather is INSANE. I always love more chocolate-y browns on other people, but for me, a black-bag-lover if there ever was one, if I'm choosing between dark brown and black, dark brown loses every time. Anyhow, it's perfect and I've gotten a lot of use out of her so far!

Group shots of my current Bal collection below as well . . .

 

[AJ1025]

Like most bag lovers, I also still have random bags that I fall for here and there, as well as a few old holdovers I've had forever. The two bags I picked up recently that were 'just for fun', not because of any, um, obsessive love of a particularly designer or line, are this crazy Loquita Weekender bag and a Pour La Victoire large tote. Both are a little wilder than I tend to like- the Loquita has that crazy print and the orange straps (they actually also make an incredibly AWESOME ax-print tote that I LOVE and am currently coveting!) and it is HUGE! For reference, I put my Bal WE, which is right now stuffed to the gills, inside the bag and zipped it up- and there's still plenty of room to spare. The PLV tote is just plain nuts and I haven't used it yet, though I love it- burgundy calf hair in the middle, black leather sections, beige patent straps, light pink leather gussets. Crazy, right? In any case, I'm a fan :shame:.

The group shot also includes some others I've had forever that I can't get rid of, most notably the red snakeskin embossed leather tote in the group photo that is worn nearly into the ground, because I used to wear it so much. I LOVE that bag. Others include: a bigass Andrew Marc black tote that I generally use as a beach bag, a Tracy Reese ostrich-embossed little satchel that I bought from BBOS 4 years ago and can't seem to give to Goodwill, even though it's basically shot and a calf hair tote I bought in Mexico like 10 years ago that I just .. . still love.

 

[AJ1025]

I also love Alexander Wang- I have my first Rocco coming this week- but there aren't many bags in his line that seem like a great fit for me, practically. One which really IS a great fit for me is the Lia Sling bag- it's been a total workhorse, a perfect casual black shoulder bag that's roomy but compact and with a bit of edge. For a long time, I thought I'd hold my AW collection at the Lia, but am recently feeling antsy to try out the Emile and the Diego, too . . . I suspect I may grow my Wang family in the next few months or so.

I'm taking a break from Bal (well, not from LOVING Bal, but I'm pretty happy with my collection right now and there's nothing new I'm obsessed enough with to start specifically saving for), so I've been trying out some other designers, seeing what works for me. One bag I've always wanted to try is the Chloe Paraty and I finally did indeed take the plunge on one last month! It was a very safe choice for me, a big, beautiful, bright red satchel- the quilted large Paraty in Poppy! I am stone cold obsessed with this bag and I haven't put it down since it arrived two weeks ago. I am DEFINITELY feeling bitten by the Chloe bug and have now set my sights on a Large Marcie, and, later, a Large Marcie in Black Python (not ready to fully commit to that plan of action yet, but I've been doing a lot of fantasizing, that's for sure!) . . . uh oh.

I've also included a comparison shot with my Tomato Work, so folks can get an idea of the size and color . . . yes, the color's are similar, but not exactly the same, I swear!