HANDBAGS | Valentino?

I was casually strolling through an outlet mall in the Bay Area and discovered this bag at Saks Off Fifth. I've never heard of nor seen Valentino bags, so I thought I'd take a look.

This blush colored leather bag caught my eye, it has a similar shape and chain to the oh so popular Chanel bag but not nearly as expensive.

What really sold me is this compartment, I've seen other knock off Chanel designers but they generally don't have a divider in the middle (although... take a look at the zipper, the quality of the fabric inside that bag is also incredibly cheap feeling. What kind of color is this?

Granted, this bag is slightly larger than my other crossbodies, but I do like the little divider

Low quality dust bag, it's a little sad that even Coach and Michael Kors comes with a nicer bag than this... If I didn't buy this at Saks Off 5th I would think this bag was a knock off from China

Even the authentication tags look cheap/fake, no?

Official details

I'm semi-regretting this purchase as I type this blog post. I'm not really into the quilted leather and chain bags anymore, but I've been really into neutral (esp grey) leathered goods lately.

See the Saks page here

For $400, the quality is good enough. I can't imagine paying full price for any of the real Valentino bags, the designs are so sub-par. Although the collections I see on Nordstroms website is very true to their rock stud style

Upon more research, it seems like Valentino at the outlet stores is by Mario Valentino. Aka, NOT THE DESIGNER YOU MIGHT BE THINKING OF.

But interestingly,

Mario Valentino claims to have begun their business in 1952

Valentino Garavani found his company in 1960

However, I feel like people (like me) who aren't familiar with all the designers would easily think that this line of handbags are from Valentino Garavani. Now it makes sense why the dust bag and tags are so low quality... Bc it's not designed to be a luxury brand

Valentino Garavani's line of leathered goods are sold at Nordstroms and presumably most high end department stores.

Least expensive:

I just realized Michael Kors has done something similar a few years back (presumably copying Valentino), no wonder it doesn't appeal to me

Most expensive:

Look at the price on these bags o_O I can only imagine spending that kind of money on LV or Chanel

HANDBAGS | Saint Laurent Sac de Jour vs. Michael Kors Mercer Tote

Not sure why but recently I've been obsessed with the color grey

I still follow hollyannaerre, and she purchased a taupe Baby Sac de Jour a couple months back. 

I was REALLY tempted to get the Sac de Jour from Neiman Marcus when they had a $500 giftcard deal, but considering I never shop at Neiman, and also the fact that YSL doesn't hold that kind of value to me at $2,650... I decided to look into alternatives instead.
In case anyone else is interested though, Ebates currently offers 15% of Saks Fifth Avenue purchases (as of 5/16/17)

Through filtering grey handbags on Neiman, I saw the Michael Kors Mercer Tote, which, as you can tell, is somewhat similar

$2,650 vs $298

The biggest difference I can see is the handles. The MK is longer, the shapes are very similar and the color is slightly lighter.

The one thing I can't stand about the Sac de Jour is the accordion sides. The MK one I can deal with but I'd rather it had smooth sides

Soooo yeah. I got the matching small wallet too :)

Tbh at my age now I feel like Michael Kors and Coach are a "downgrade" even though they're affordable but good quality. Buuuut $2,000 is a little steep, I'd only be willing to pay that for LV or Chanel.