Carolina Herrera bag reveal and Barcelona store photo tour

[Passerine123]

Last week I was in Barcelona for a combined business/leisure trip. I had a few days of vacation after the business meetings finished and couldn't resist adding into my sightseeing a walking tour of the Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona's equivalent of Bond Street, Rodeo Drive, Avenue Montaigne/Faubourg St Honore, etc. One of the my priorities was visiting the large Carolina Herrera store on 87, Passeig de Gracia, to see her newest collection of bags and accessories. Once inside, I couldn't resist . I'll start with an outside shot of the store followed by the reveal -- more shots from inside the store will follow. Plus a little info at the end about her airport shop.

Here is the outside -- it's a pretty large store, bigger than a few of the other designer stores I stopped into (Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent). It's two stories -- bags/accessories on ground floor, clothes upstairs:

 

[Passerine123]

Now, moving on to the reveal -- I hadn't planned to buy a CH bag and had in fact been considering a BV bag. But when I saw this one, I decided it really filled a niche in my collection.

 

[Passerine123]

So here it is -- a medium-sized bag with detachable (but not adjustable) shoulder strap. I loved the two-toned leather colors, the leather texture, the charms, the color mix of the strap (brown on one side, dark red on inside), and the inside pockets. It's a new model, or at least a new color combination, that has been in stores for less than two weeks.

 

[Passerine123]

Side view

 

[Passerine123]

and charms close up. As the store had only received two in this color combination -- it's also available in black, red, and red/brown combo -- all they had left was the display model. I prefer not to buy the display bag, but it was in perfect shape. For buying the display version, the SA gave me a choice of free bag charm -- I picked the jasmine flower shown here.

 

[Passerine123]

Now the store tour. I did not go upstairs to see the clothes, so this photo tour is only of the ground floor. The store is quite dark inside. The SA spoke perfect English (actually, I think he was British). And even though we said that we were only looking, he quickly offered us a beverage -- coffee, tea, water etc. It had been a hot, sunny day, so we gladly accepted a bottle of mineral water. Anyway, the next several posts will just be photos taken around the ground floor.

 

[Passerine123]

more - and apologies, I don't know how to rotate the photos, sorry!

 

[Passerine123]

next

 

[Passerine123]

a close-up of a bag I really liked and if I'd been in the mood for something with major bling, I'd have been tempted.

 

[Passerine123]

Heavily embellished bags aren't my thing, but for those who like a bit of whimsy with their bags, here is a CH example:

 

[snibor]

Thanks for posting! Congrats on the bag and great pics.

 

[Passerine123]

CH also has gorgeous silk scarves...I almost bought the one in the very top left (if you rotate the photo vertically, it's the colored circles on a dark background), the colors were so rich and beautiful, but it just didn't work with my skin tone/hair color. Also, the store carried only square scarves (for the most part) and I prefer rectangular scarves. The scarves were priced between 200 and 300 euros as I recall. Some of the larger ones might have been a bit more expensive. Again, apologies for the sideways photo!

 

[Passerine123]

And... as they say, in for a penny, in for a pound, so after we left the store and wandered back down the Passeig de Gracia, we hit the Uterque store. For those of you who don't know, Uterque is Zara's more upscale sister chain. As far as I know, the only actual stores are in Spain, although you can order things online from other countries. The prices are still quite reasonable and you can see they're heavily influenced by premium designers, but they still have a lot of great things on offer. https://www.uterque.com/ch/en/ I picked up a pair of slides and a pair of loafers. Both are very comfortable and made in Spain.

 

[Passerine123]

Now...the prices! My CH bag cost 940 euros (the BV bag I had considered was 2200 euros and a velvet Prada bag I had also thought about getting was 2500, so 940 seems pretty reasonable ). The slides were 89 euros and the loafers 99 euros.

Lastly, the shop at Barcelona airport. It has a better selection than I'd expected and had both my bag model (but not in my color combination -- they had the solid red and solid black versions only) and the business card case my husband bought. The prices were exactly the same as in the downtown store, so if you see something you like downtown, get it. There's no discount in the airport and if you're entitled to tax back, you can get that from either location.

 

[Stansy]

Wonderful pictures (I like the silk scarf with the corals) and a beautiful bag, congrats!