Fashion Week Handbags: Louis Vuitton

In a show with such an astounding number of beautiful handbags, I barely know where to begin. Who would have thought after last season’s tribal tassel disaster that Marc Jacobs would come up with such a feminine, pretty, and functional collection of handbags at Louis Vuitton. I would have been the last one to guess it – in fact, I remarked to a friend last week that I was barely even looking forward to the Vuitton show.

But that’s the genius of Marc Jacobs. Just when you think that you’ve got him pegged, when you think that you know what he’s going to do and how you’re going to feel about it, he veers off in the opposite direction at full speed and gives you the last thing you could have ever thought he would come up with.

This season, he took us straight back to 1940s France, with tea-length tweeds, tailored waists, and bosom-hugging dirndls. The look reminded me of the French farm girls in the opening sequence of Inglourious Basterds, but with an obviously high-end, Parisian twist. It was a beautiful collection, made only more beautiful by the gobs and gobs of gloriously detailed, traditionally wrought handbags in every material that one could imagine: crocodile, ostrich, leather, fur, lace, satin, beads, you name it. Almost all of the bags were plays on the traditional Speedy shape, with a few wristlets thrown in for good measure. Many Vuitton fans have been lamenting the loss of a certain amount of traditional from the staid fashion house – for those customers, this collection is a shot of sunshine straight from handbag heaven.

Photos via Style.com.