(Karl Lagerfeld & Lindsay Lohan in front of a Chanel CC logo Jet)  Love this Karl Lagerfeld quote about luxury handbags that I found in Dana Thomas’s book, Deluxe, How Luxury Lost its Luster:

“[They] make your life more pleasant, make you dream, give you confidence, and show your neighbors you are doing well.  Everyone can afford a luxury handbag.”

“Everyone can afford a luxury handbag.”  This is especially true if you purchase said authentic luxury handbag, pre-owned and at a discount from www.fashionphile.com

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No… not us! As our name implies… we here at FASHIONPHILE love fashion . But we also have embraced our inner-techno-nerd!

Apparently, a bunch of top Fashion designers & industry execs- including Karl Lagerfeld, LVMH CEO Yves Carcelle, Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquiere, Miucca Prada and even our own Marc Jacobs, don’t frequent the “internets” much. In fact, some don’t use a computer at all, they have assistants syncing their I-Pods, have their email printed out for them and respond with hand written notes. Check out the interesting article from NY Magazine!

Marc’s been getting with the program and has apparently even found a “relationship” online! For entertainment, he’s even recently been commenting on blogs that reference him!

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This picture is from Louis Vuitton’s workshop in Asnières, France. I love seeing all those trunks lined up and stacked- one after the other. They look quite similar on the outside. In fact Louis Vuitton continues its century long tradition of monogramming and otherwise personalizing it’s trunks and travel pieces- a practice they began to differentiate your trunks from those of other travelers as they were stacked for retrieval on the docks.

But what I find absolutely fascinating, is the customization that you’ll often find in the interior of some of these trunks. Men’s Vogue just did an article on this one of a kind luggage, with all kinds of interesting quotes and info on the subject.

I posted a while back about one of my favorite’s: Karl Lagerfeld’s custom trunk- one that holds his 80 IPods. I just love hearing about them- all of them, from trunks that transport items as luxurious as jewels and watches, to those for mundane uses like portable beds and toilets! The common denominator here is that they have to be used in travel. I love this quote from Vogue:

“We are in the business of movement,” says Patrick-Louis Vuitton, a fifth-generation member of the founding family who oversees all of LV’s custom projects. “A special order is a compromise between desires and needs from the client and our aesthetic and technical requirements.”

The Asnières workshop fills around 450 custom orders annually. They aren’t just popping these things out- they take months to build… although apparently no more than eight months as a rule. These are often true custom pieces, with their birth in rough sketches- and often with one worker following a piece through to completion.

A custom trunk isn’t cheap. Of course, exotic leathers cost more than epi costs more than monogram, etc. The larger the trunk, the more detailed the customization, the more expensive the piece. Vogue quoted that for example, a chess set made out of “inlaid lacquered wood, Madagascar-ebony-and-maple pieces, and a russet leather” would run around $21,000.

We’ve got the wonderful opportunity to sell a fabulous vintage, custom Louis Vuitton trunk right now.

It was customized by George Edwin Bergstrom- the principal architect on the Pentagon (and other amazing buildings and landmarks!) The trunk was specially made to hold his rolled up blue prints and other tools of this architectural artist. It’s just fascinating.

So basically, they come full circle! Fulfill a purpose when traveling, but then make for great furniture when they retire!

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“I have, in fact, 80 iPods. I took my entire music collection and put it all on iPods and threw out all the CDs. I am totally digital now, and I take all my music wherever I go. Bernard Arnault made me a unique Louis Vuitton trunk to carry it all in, along with the speakers.”
—Karl Lagerfeld in Fashion Rocks magazine on influential music is to his creative process.

I wanna see!!!

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