Trend Watching: Animal Shape Clutch Bags

I've come across an interesting trend recently: Animal shape clutch bags! I know, amazing right? Firstly, I saw this post on Krisatomic's blog called Clutch Menagerie and just love love them. Check it out:

They are  by Tsurubride on Etsy and retail at $80. Check out Tsurubride's Orwell Clutch bags on Etsy here. She also does purses and other such wonderments.

Then yesterday I came across this amazing Dachsund Handbag via ArtatHeart:

Seriously cute. Click here for the original article about the Dachsund Handbag on ArtatHeart. It's made by Beetrootonline and is £85 - they also do a cute little birdy purse! Ah.

So what's sparked all this animal clutch-ness off then? Maybe it's that people are realising putting actual real dogs in your handbag is silly. And you get hairs all over your stuff. So a better option is to have your bag AS a dog. Excellent.

Or maybe it's this: These definitely wouldn't work as well if they had handles or straps. I think what makes these great is they could be mistaken for just holding a little stuffed animal. Which comes from the whole 'back to your childhood' trend going on right now. I am in favour of this.

The Domestic Sluts have just drawn my attention to this uh-mazing handbag:

Which, as they say in their Domestic Sluttery Bag Lust post, maybe only a child could pull off. Nay, I say to that, I would gladly pull this off and look crazy cool. If a little Gaga-esque. Which is never a bad thing in my books. Being a child has never looked so fun!

It's £65 from Lunacy Boutique and can be pre-ordered now for the end of June. I wannnnt one. *stamps feet*

Get on the wire and get your orders in! Aha. See what I did there.

Selfridges: New online shopping and brand identity

Surely, you could buy online. Surely. But no. It seemed the 21st century had slipped Selfridges by... if you wanted their stuff (and there's a lot of it...) you had to get down to Oxford St or the Bullring (or the one in Manchester, but I've never been there) and buy it in person. Or get a minion to do it I suppose.


I think originally, Selfridges didn't want to get into e-shopping because they though it would take away from their in-store experience. After all, they're pretty good at putting on experiential shopping and buying something online, they thought, would dull that experience. Also, there was a thought that luxury shoppers wouldn't want to buy online - if you're going to spend a couple of K on a handbag, you want to do it in person, you want to see it, feel it. Not so. While I was on placement at Open, we undertook some trend and consumer research for Selfridges, particularly into the habits of high-end luxury buyers, and actually, quite a lot of people do want to buy luxury goods online. Maybe they're not the type to splash the cash and show off, maybe they're just too damn busy to navigate selfridges on a busy saturday. In any case, there was a need. And it seems Selfridges listened.

The homepage is nice and clean, with good interactivity and not too much flash-usage.  All those boxes you can fling around with your mouse. I've spent a good while stacking them up neatly. Slightly calming, yet alarming.

The Selfridges blog is just starting up too, called Selfridges Says... (slightly familiar don't you think! I know I'm great, but no need to rip me off ;) haha.)

What I really like though is the identity of the branding. It comes across best in the emails they send out:

It's just really fun and quirky, I like the hand drawn illustrations and the fact that the product shots aren't just cut outs of flats, they are displayed like an exhibition, curated almost. That's a word we threw at Selfridges. Actually that's a word that's being thrown around a lot recently. It's a good 'un.

The Wish Rooms

This is brilliant. It's like Wish Lists 2.0. As you browse the site, you add things to the Wish rooms. Then you can hop on over and create outfits from what you've added, arranging them on the mannequins. You can then send to a friend (ah, sharing, way to go) or just rush and buy them cos you're so rich and NEED that Stella Mccartney jumpsuit. Sharing them is good as your friends get to see them on a mannequin, as an outfit, and can give you advice! I also think it would be good for fashion bloggers who don't like awkward outfit posts (like me...) - you can just stick the stuff on the perfectly formed mannequin and all is good.

I also love the Inspiration trend boards:

I do a lot of trend boards at work and these are so inspiration and amazing. Defo something to aspire to!


Nice one, Selfridges. You made us wait a long time... But I think it's worth it.