Qualities to look for while purchasing an exotic skin handbag

It’s hard for me to not be biased as a couture bag designer in terms of what to tell customers to look for when purchasing an exotic skin handbag. This is based on the assumption that what I am presenting within my own collection represents the top category of available luxury details. I couldn’t write so boldly to tell you where designers go cheap in design detail and then offer that kind of cheapened product myself.

Quite frankly, when I started designing my first collection, creating the language of “Farbod Barsum” standard details was the most time consuming aspect of the whole venture. For example, how does typical stitching, facing, zipper collar, piping, hardware connection, and other such details manifest themselves so they give my bags character and identity that is unique to my brand. When executing these standard details, both myself and my manufacturer came to the agreement that these will end up being the most difficult, time consuming, and luxury conscious of market designs. I will explain why as we go along…

First and foremost when you’re about to plunk down a sizeable amount of money for an exotic, you must realize that material and labor are the major components affecting price. Being the most expensive material available on the market for making handbags, exotics must be used carefully and wisely. Some designers use this approach to use exotics conservatively and minimize the overall consumption of material and give the most amount of show for the least amount of input. For example, I personally find it distasteful to approach an exotic handbag in a specialty retailer and open it up to find that there is no show on the inside of exotics. For the owner, the inside of a bag should be just as luxurious as the exterior. Otherwise, it becomes much like a Hollywood movie set where the façade of a building was created and behind it an empty hollow structure.

Allow me to outline some of these details: The outside edge that folds inside a bag is the facing of a bag. Sometimes it’s a continuous piece or sometimes it’s sewn as a separate piece that goes around the inner rim of the handbag opening which is then called a collar. When you open a clutch, the inside flap is also called the facing. The more luxurious option is to create these out of exotics as well. I find that time after time, many fashion houses, even the revered ones use cowhide or lambskin as a cheap alternative. I get turned off when a sales associate tries to make it a bragging point that it has an interior of lambskin, even if it is lined in lambskin. Please! Even some custom woven linings are more expensive per yard than lambskin.

Look underneath shoulder straps and handles. If the top is exotic, the bottom should make use of exotic if you want more out of your bag. If the designer wishes to elaborate on the interior, you will often find a ¼” or ½” trim around the zipper (called a zipper collar) and a similar trim around the top edge of envelope pockets and cell phone pockets. Again, if they are made of corresponding exotic, you are getting more value for your money.

Next, look at how your bag is finished along the edges. This is really important to know how much time was spent creating and assembling the panels. If they are top stitched and the edge is painted or filled in with a waxy resin, this is called a raw cut resin painted edge. If the exotic skin folds inwards and disappears before the panel was top stitched, then you are looking at a very calibrated couture detail, a turned edge. These edges need a lot more planning and preparation often requiring the skin to be thinned out and pre-folded with a special tool before being perfectly lined up for stitching.

If the panels slip during sewing, it will show and nothing can be done to fix it whereas a slight slip of the raw cut treatment will be remedied during the final trimming and resin painting phase. I’m shocked to see how many fashion houses will finish their bags like this.  Even one of the most expensive handbag makers in the market, which I cannot name, uses this detail to finish their ‘prized’ product. Over time, be assured that the resin will tend to crack and chip off. It’s a calibrated gimmick to get the consumer to take the bag in for repair and treatment and possibly look at new arrivals and make another purchase.

Other couture details that are not imperative to holding the bag together, but make for visual array is the number of seams and panels in the design of the bag and also how they are trimmed. If there is a lot of piping and French binding, this is again more time consuming and difficult to achieve. Also, are there curves in the design? Design and perceived value in the design is entirely up to the taste of the customer, but remember that curves are a lot harder to cut and sew than straight lines.

If the bag is relatively structured and has a flat bottom design, I advise that you look for a bag with metal ‘feet’ placed at regular intervals in that panel. If it is flat and has no feet, then the design house went cheap on the consumer. The feet will obviously protect the bag from dirt and oils from being placed on tables and other surfaces.

In short couture handbags make use of more detail, hardware, labor, and exotic skin throughout. Some designs opt for a mimimalisitc approach and if so, they must be priced accordingly. The eye doesn't fool you so trust your instincts.