Handbags are and always will be the ultimate accessory! Holly Poppins discovered three big theme's for the next season: over-sized, metallic and the clutch. You can't go wrong when teaming the key style in key colours.This year has many influences - Nautical, Natural, Metallic - so let's take a look at what colours are sure to be a hit! The strongest colours in the Summer palette are metallic silvers, bronzes and golds, plus bright reds, purples and blues. As always the natural colours flow through with deep chocs and browns.

Sharp colour combinations for summer include monochrome black and white prints or darkest navy blue teamed or trimmed with red. The trusty black and white scheme is always fashionable. Team a smart black and white outfit with red flats and a red handbag for classic black v's white with a nautical twist! The northern hemisphere summer 2007 colour palette was of cream, grey, beige, soft pastel dusty pinks, silvery white, palest lemon, mauve, lilac, cherry red, brown, olive green and petrol blue. The biggest trend seen everywhere was the metallic twist! For an easy metallic hint add a clutch to your favourite LBD to update the look (check out our clutches for some hot new distressed metallic looks).
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Introducing the NEW fashion fix that every girl has been waiting for!

The decision to change handbags is all too often made at the last minute, resulting in items being left behind! Finally Borne Naked has developed a bag organiser that will see an end to the universal problems that arises with changing handbags and leaving your favourite lippie, perfume, tampons, hair elastics, sunglasses and diary - and all your other MUST HAVE items - in your previous bag!

Borne Naked is a unique clear handbag liner that sits inside your handbag and holds your handbag contents in organised compartments, managing to keep all of your favourite things in the one completely see-through pouch. For sassy, organised women all over the world who want to change their handbag to match their outfit, all you have to do is simply remove the handbag liner (which you keep your daily necessities in) and place it into another bag, making changing handbags extremely quick and easy! Now you can share the love between your Chloe, Gucci or Balenciaga bag - changing over handbags has never been made so easy!
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How to Carry a Handbag with Style

A handbag is more than a sac of supplies to get you through the day. This accessory is an opportunity heighten your style factor by acting as the finishing touch to any outfit. Carrying a great purse can declare your fashion sense and emphasize the mood of an ensemble: fun, racy, flirty, chic, sophisticated, casual, bohemian... You name it: handbags are a smart way to infuse personality into any look.

Since they're usually compact, you can make a bold design statement with shape, color, fabric, other embellishments.
While the exterior of your handbag is limited only by your imagination, the inside of a woman's handbag is serious business. The contents of your purse function as a style and organizational survival tool kit, in which superfluous items are sacrificed and cast aside in order to make room for those implements you would rather not live without. Whether dainty or gigantic, the handbag acts as a portable magic-bag of tricks, in which we stash cash, cards, cell phones, tampons, Blackberries, keys, and last but certainly not least, a plethora of essential tools necessary for on-the-go beauty & style maintenance.
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Handbag with interchangeable covers

A handbag having interchangeable covers to change the visual appearance of the handbag. The main handbag comprises an article receiving enclosure having an upper margin about the opening and carrying straps on either side of the opening. A plurality of fastening elements are secured within the opening of the main handbag adjacent the margin. A changeable cover is adapted to be disposed about the main handbag having fastening panels along the upper edge thereof and being adapted to be folded over the upper margin of the opening of the main handbag. Mating fastening elements are coupled to the fastening panels to engage the fastening elements of the handbag to secure the cover to the main handbag.

The present invention generally relates to women's purses and handbags and, in particular, to purses and handbags that can be coupled to changeable covers to change the color and appearance of the handbag. The fashion industry has traditionally marketed purses and handbags having a specific appearance (e.g., color) that would permit the user to coordinate the purse or handbag with clothing and the like. The prior art discloses several inventions which intend to provide interchangeable coverings or panels that can be affixed or otherwise temporarily secured to the handbag in order to change its appearance.
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Heavy Handbags Could Cause Back Pain

From home to the office to the gym, Americans are carrying more in their bags, purses and briefcases than ever before. But while you're trekking around with your life on your shoulder, your body is taking a beating. Doctors say they're seeing more patients than ever who say they're feeling the effects of carrying a heavier load. "The most common complaint is always lower back pain," said Beth Israel's Dr. Andrew Casden. That symptom is a growing pain to a society that's gone mobile and is constantly on the move, forcing us to stay connected with gear like laptops and electronics which just add more pounds to the problem. It's not just the size of the bag; it's that we carry more.

And it isn't just purses tipping the scales. Men tend to suffer even more not just because of what's in the bag, but because of the way they carry it. "Men carry laptops also; they may be carrying their gym clothes," Casden said. "And the weight of their bags is usually more important, because they may not have a shoulder strap. And they may be carrying it at the end of their arm in a briefcase or some sort of bag like that, and that tends to put even more stress on the back." So why are bags getting bigger? "I think big bags are always going to stay in style, like denim is staying in style," said stylist Sharon Feldstein. "But there's a thing I call … the crossover, kind of like the crossover car. It's not an SUV, but it's not a tiny car. … It holds a lot of stuff and it's a little bit better for your back." Doctors say that until Americans learn to lighten their load, the risk of long-term damage remains.
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Blogging Chocolate Purses, Counterfeit Handbags, & Purse Riots For SEO

Chocolate purses? Did I read that correctly? Back alley bags? Terrorism funding with fake couture? Designer purse riots? They can't be true! But wait, the news is true, it absolutely is! And what is this? A diamond thief snatches a designer handbag from a sexy starlet! And then comes a story about designer cell phones to carry in that fashionable handbag! This is what I love about web marketing and my work as a search engine optimization specialist - the fun and novelty of research. Let's take a step back here and clarify. Why would a web site owner seeking increased search engine visibility care about news related to their products? In a word, CONTENT. I always recommend to new clients that they start a blog discussing their industry and their products and post to it several times a week. Post what? Anything and everything about their product or service belongs in their blog. Content is king and blogs are a great place to routinely add relevant, interesting, search engine friendly content. But my clients wonder where I come up with this stuff - It's in the news. As I scrolled down the page of resulting stories, I saw a link to a press release discussing the new pink Juicy Couture Sidekick phone and PDA from T-Mobile. Then I scrolled to the bottom of that Google News page to look for the link that says, "New! Track new stories about designer handbags & create an email alert" I clicked the link under "create an email alert" and entered my email address for this "Designer Handbags" news search, just like I do with each new client and their product. Every day I receive a list of news stories that turned up in a news search for "Designer Handbags" to discuss on the client blog.
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Trend for celebrity endorsed handbags fades

British women will no longer be persuaded to part with hundreds or thousands of pounds for designer-label handbags just because they've seen them on the arm of Posh Spice, a new report is forecasting. Mintel says that the love affair with expensive handbags such as the Burberry 'Warrior', which can set you back by as much as £13,000, is over, as women become more cynical about celebrity endorsement.

Handbag sales have been a real bright spot in the women's accessories market, with sales rising by 139% between 2002 and 2007, according to Mintel. This has largely been spurred by glossy magazines like Grazia and Heat obsessing over what designer handbag is being carried by trend-setting celebrities such as Kate Moss, Sienna Miller and Victoria Beckham. However, it predicts that the trend will be over this year, with a rise of only 18% forecast in handbag sales for 2008. Handbag retailers need not fear at this point, as the total sales will still reach £553m. However, the higher end of the market may be hit because people will buy more reasonably priced bags from the high street. Katrin Magnussen, senior fashion analyst at Mintel, said: "Women have become more cynical about celebrity endorsed products. "Many will no longer be as quick to spend hundreds, even thousands of pounds on a bag just because the likes of Posh Spice have been snapped with one. "Especially when these days the must-have looks are quickly translated to the high street.
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Handbag sales may slow as jewelry shines

The $7 billion U.S. market for handbags, the fastest-growing product in the fashion industry, may be slowing from record growth. U.S. sales increases that peaked at 28 percent in 2004, the strongest on record, may give way to as little as 15 percent this year and aren't showing signs of returning until at least 2009, according to the New York-based stock research firm Telsey Advisory Group. "The handbag business has softened up a little bit," said Kathryn Deane, president of New York fashion-consulting firm Tobe. "When the consumer looks at accessories, she is not just looking at handbags anymore."

Articles of Interest, The U.S. Women's Handbag and Purse Manufacturing Industry's Revenue for the...New Report 'Handbags in the United States 2007' Describes How Internet...The Estimated $5 billion U.S. Handbags Market has Witnessed Tremendous Growth...NPD Reports It's All in the Bag: Handbags Are the Most Popular Accessory...New Report Handbags In The United States 2007 Describes How Internet... U.S. handbag sales gains may have peaked as competition from shoes and jewelry heats up and higher gasoline and mortgage costs slow consumer spending. "It used to be all about the shoes and our woman had so many shoes in her closet, then it became the multiplicity of handbags," Saks Inc. Chief Executive Officer Stephen Sadove told investors at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. conference on Sept. 6. "What you are seeing now is a new trend, which is branded designer fine jewelry."
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Handbags full of cash after underachiever storms home

ROSS and Chris Lyons were convinced their three-year-old gelding, who they had bred and nurtured, was not realising his full potential. Two races had reaped little and the brothers agreed that, to get to the bottom of the gelding's problems, they would transfer the horse to veteran trainer Ted Cameron at Swan Hill. Little did they know that they were taking their first step towards one of the biggest plunges recorded in Australian racing. Cameron would gallop Mortolox only twice a week and every other day would float the horse five kilometres out of Swan Hill and get one of the stable apprentices to ride him back in a bid to vary the horse's work. After nearly three months, he contacted the Lyons brothers and told them that the horse would be running in a three-year-old race at Victoria Park in Adelaide. He said Mortolox, the son of Dryburg, who was the much-underrated older brother of The Judge, Red Rebecca and Victoria Peak, was next door to a certainty.

Russell Cameron, Ted Cameron's son, who now is a leading Melbourne trainer in his own right, recalled yesterday the day in 1978 at the old Victoria Park course he will never forget. "When I got out of the car, I was sick and before I'd got the horse even off the float, I was sick again. You have no idea the pressure behind a plunge like this," he said. "You dot your Is and then you dot them again and again. "I knew the extraordinary amount of money that was going to be wagered and that made me ill." When betting opened, bookmakers put Mortolox at 150-1.