Brand, Saint Laurent

Gwyneth Paltrow carries Hedi Slimane’s first bag for Yves Saint Laurent Buying Guide Replica Bags

UPDATE: WE HAVE CLOSE-UPS OF THE BAG! CHECK AFTER THE JUMP FOR MORE.

I’ve received plenty of questions regarding my brand new Saint Laurent Monogram wallet on a string, and everyone knows I love purses, so I believed this was a fantastic time for my very first bag inspection! I thought it was a mistake at first… but I immediately got my credit card and BAM, it was mine!Before I dive into a purse review, I’d love to give you a quick back story on my search for The Perfect Wallet-on-Chain Bag. My very first purse buy after I got my very first real job out of school was a Marc Jacobs Mini Single Wallet-On-Chain bag. I still like it, but I seldom carry it now. I began searching something a bit nicer for if we go out to nice dinners or when I want to make my all-black-everything leggings-and-Northface seem a bit nicer. I know that sounds absurd to think about something like a handbag, but to me, a handbag can specify not only your outfit, but your confidence too. Sure, a fantastic pair of sneakers makes your world a catwalk, but carrying a Chanel tote makes one feel something.After my sister and I booked our trip to Paris, I determined that I really wanted to purchase a Chanel something I was in France–but that the handbag angels had another plan for me. I saved for months to maintain a comfortable place to be able to buy a Chanel bag in Paris, where Coco Chanel began her worldwide empire. I pulled my sister to about 6 Chanel boutiques, also that I tried on about 15 Chanel bags. None of them were correct, so I gave up.

At the tail end of Friday, when I was too zoned out thinking about the upcoming holiday weekend and the impending arrival of New York Fashion Week to think real thoughts or accomplish real things, an interesting link came across Twitter. According to a story by Katherine Ormerod at UK fashion magazine Grazia Daily, Hedi Slimane’s first piece of accessory design as creative director at Yves Saint Laurent (Saint Laurent Paris? I’m still unclear what I’m supposed to say when I refer to the brand as a whole) has made an unlikely debut: on the arm of Gwyneth Paltrow at the airport.

Ormerod reports that Slimane designed this bag especially for Paltrow, so it’s unclear whether or not it’ll become a regular production piece for Slimane’s first Yves Saint Laurent/Saint Laurent Paris accessories collection in Spring 2013. If this is truly a Slimane x YSL piece, though, it might gives us a few hints about what we can expect from the brand’s forthcoming purses.

First, it’s absent any external branding. That might be because it’s a one-off piece, but it seems more likely that Slimane will want to position the accessories line in a way similar to blockbuster handbag brands like Celine and Givenchy. That means dialing back the ubiquitous Ys in favor of the new minimalism that has taken over some sectors of the high-end handbag design world over the past few years, which makes a certain amount of sense when you consider Slimane’s designer history and his tendency to be on the leading edge of aesthetic ideas. More notable than anything, though, is the fact that the bag is beautiful. As Ormerod points out in her story, you can tell that the bag is made of fabulous leather even in these grainy photos, and it would make a wonderful staple piece in almost any woman’s closet. Slimane would do well to make this bag a foundational piece in his inaugural YSL accessories collection.

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