Unique Handbags are a Hot Trend

Shopping on the Internet has contributed to the increase in popularity, style, and availability of unique handbags. There are thousands of different, beautifully crafted and unique purses available online. Many of these bags are actually little works of art. Since the designer does not have to own or even work with, an offline, physical store, more are able to get into the business of creating these items and sell them directly to the consumer. This is a great advantage because…  not only are there more choices in style, pattern, and concept, but the prices are less than if you were to buy them in a physical store, or at the mall, like how many mass-produced purses are sold. Unique handbags are seen as exotic and make a more personal fashion statement about the owner.

Innovation is the name of the game with unique handbags because they are so creative that with each new concept and design, varieties are being inspired, developed, and sold. With that said, it is important to remember that at its root, a purse is a fashion accessory, and therefore, trends tend to emerge from year to year.

Let’s discuss some of the popular styles, from spins on the traditional to the downright, far-out concepts. When you think of an accessory for a casual day out shopping that easily morphs into an appropriate fashion accessory for the evening, you think of the hobo purse. What makes hobo purses fall into the category of unique handbags is that lately the embellishments and the new materials being used, such as sequins. Another bag entering into this arena is the monogrammed handbag. Although they never seem to go out of style, they fall into this category because of the new twist we see with the use of different colors as well as more styles and shapes. The monogramming is put on the purse in the form of embossing. It could be a name, an initial or two or three, and the fonts can be wildly creative or traditional and simple. Of course monogramming can be done with leather, and embossing is the common method to do this. With cloth handbags, the monogramming is more commonly done with stitching thread, or an appliqué. What I like about these purses is they are doubly –unique handbags in that the initials are your own.

If you want a fashion accessory that is a little more unique than a monogrammed purse, but don’t want to get a look that is too unusual, you may want to consider a cloth handbag. These purses come in a wide variety simply because they are cloth and that material enables the designer/manufacturer/artist to create a huge variety of styles. Fabrics that have crazy patterns can be mixed with bright colorful fabrics to create stop-them-in-their-path unique conversation pieces. They can be more subdued as well. Their can be a wider variety of shapes and sizes of these unique handbags simply because of this material.

Fashion accessories are often used as a vehicle to convey the interests of the wearer. With that said, it’s easier to understand the emergence of the style of “dog handbags.” I don’t mean dog carry crates that look like purses; I mean ladies’ handbags with images of dog breeds on them. Some popular breeds we are seeing range from the little yorkie to the large black Labrador. (On a side note, these purses are not limited to dogs; we are seeing other pet images on purses. I even saw a program where a woman harvests actual pet cat hair and turns it into yarn and creates a totally unique bag for the pet owner!) At any rate, these unique handbags can be great conversation starters and I think that has added to its popularity.

Getting a little more personal is the photo purse. These are truly unique handbags because they have your own photo incorporated into the purse. There are different ways to accomplish this. A simple (and inexpensive) way to do this is to have a clear vinyl outside pocket that the owner can put their own photos in. These handbags can have one large photo pocket, or several smaller ones to display more than one photo at a time. Another method to get a photo on a purse is to have it silks screened on. There are other methods other than silk screening, but the end result is the same. These types of unique handbags lend themselves well to the internet because the purchaser can upload a digital photograph and the designer can use that image to produce the one-of-a-kind purse.

The last type of unique handbags to be included in this discussion is the category that uses unusual materials to create a purse. My favorite type that falls into this category is the cigar box purse. They certainly are conversation pieces, to say the least. What I like about them is the graphic design aspect of them. In most cases the labels are still in tact. The ones I like are made from actual cigar boxes and are not imitations. The material is often cardboard, but can be wood including balsa wood (a light type of wood.) Those are my favorites because they are more durable than cardboard, yet are still lightweight.