Lady LUX

It all started with a quick Twitter exchange. In May 2009, Tina Craig of Bag Snob—the fashionable blog that reviews luxury handbags—sent a tweet that Donna Karan’s Eldridge bag “looked like a sea creature.” DKNY PR Girl, the label’s Twitter personality, responded “Haven’t you ever taken a bad picture?”

The upshot was Karan staff sent the purse in question, accompanied by a few more, to Bag Snob for review. “When I saw the bag in person, it was completely different,” Craig revealed to WWD.

After Craig and partner Kelly Cook bumped into Donna Karan at a Neiman Marcus trunk show in Dallas, they collectively began to imagine joining forces in a collab. The pair approached DKNY and poof, Bag Snob’s first handbag collection was created.

The five-piece line, Bag Snob X DKNY, is in stores come October, and shoppers can pre-reserve the bags on DKNY’s Facebook page now through June.

The collection has its roots in Bag Snobs’ “5 Essentials,” in which the bloggers ask various industry types to list their five most essential bags. The resulting line of merchandise: the Tote (retail: $495), in rectangular form with side pockets; the Travel ($565), a horseshoe-shaped bag with zip-down side compartments; the Trendy ($325), a petite leopard print bag able to be worn multiple ways; the Clutch ($265), a sequined flap wristlet; and the Treasure ($365), featuring a leather color block pattern with an embossed crocodile flap.

“This was a dream come true,” Cook said to WWD. “Before, we didn’t realize all the construction and production that goes into a bag.” Their experiences, she claimed, have changed their attitudes toward being critics.

While the duo received feedback and direction from to Jane Chung, executive vice president of DKNY design, and the company’s production team assisted with the practical side, Cook and Craig had the freedom to design as they chose.

Some lessons were easily learned. “Like, you can’t put light bulbs and diamonds inside your bags — too heavy,” Craig laughed.

While the two bloggers report they received a design consultancy fee, they did not reveal the amount. This could potentially pose a problem: How can they review the collection impartially when they are getting more cash the more they sell?

“We will still give a bag we don’t like a bad review,” Craig explained. “All the brands will have a bag that’s less than stellar … but it is still important for the blog’s integrity to post what we think.” For example, this attitude led them to claim Diane von Furstenberg’s Piper bag “looked like a stuffed chicken.”

Both partners have a long-held passion for handbags, even before they kicked off their blog six years ago.

“We used to tell our parents that we received a Prada bag from the other as a gift,” Cook disclosed. “Following a Chinese custom to save face, your gift in return must be equally in line. They didn’t realize we really just bought ourselves a bag!”

Craig and Cook are now looking to the future. “Our goal is to do a new (collaboration) every year,” Craig said. “I have a list started—we could do this for the next 30 years.”

Visit Bag Snob’s website at www.bagsnob.com to see all five designs.

Tagged in: purse, handbag, dkny, donna karan, bag snob, bag snob x dkny, kelly cook, tina craig,