Cruciani Bracelets

Italian lace-making house

Beyoncé's  Cruciani Bracelets 

Cruciani is offering an ultra-chic update to a childhood favorite, friendship bracelets.

“The label realized a demand for these macramé pieces after there were lines out the door at its Forte dei Marmi boutique. The shoppers were hunting for a four-leaf clover bracelet that the brand created for the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification back in March 2011.” Shortly after, Cruciani developed a large collection of the bracelets in various colors and styles, and eventually they popped on the wrists of trendsetters and style icons, including Rita Ora, Bar Refaeli, Heidi Klum, Anna Dello Russo.

“The absolute confirmation of the trend happened about one month ago when Beyoncé Instagrammed a picture of her wrist full of our bracelets that she bought in the Capri boutique,” said Cruciani founder, Luca Caprai.

You can find at the label’s newly opened boutique in the Time Warner Center, at Barneys New York, or online at braccialetticruciani.net.

Meet The Artist Who Is Using Designer Handbags As A Canvas

Goyard St Louis Tote

Boyarde Messenger

Boyarde Messenger is a 32-year-old British pop artist known for "painting on everything but paper." Messenger started by painting the female body but rose to fame six months ago when she ventured into painting accessories. This move was prompted when she collaborated with her friend Charlotte Della, the designer for popular shoe brand Charlotte Olympia. Della commissioned Messenger to paint 100 shoes for her label, which were exclusively sold at Neiman Marcus, and earned Messenger, mentions in American fashion tomes like Vogue and ELLE.

Hèrmes Birkin Bag

Messenger channeled her new confidence and set out to develop methods for painting luxury bags. She explained, “It took me quite a while to learn,” the process. “Before I started, I experimented on vintage bags and learned to understand how leathers are all different. They breathe differently; you really have to understand the canvas you are working on.”

Louis Vuitton Neverfull

Messengers customizes Goyard, as well as Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Balenciaga bags with “feminist-tinged” work for private clients who pay up to $3,000 to have their already-pricey goods upgraded by Messengers’s lofty hand. Messenger has developed specific painting processes for each type of bag material. They all begin by tracing the shape of her custom illustration onto the bags. But even though Messenger is has a lot of expirence painting high end goods it does not make the expirence any less stressful “I’m very confident with what I’m doing, but the process of painting on such an expensive bag is petrifying” and that the most nerve-wracking of all her commissions are Hermès leather bags.

Although Messenger has been very successful and is in high demand she is looking to break out from the custom-commission mold. She says that one day she ‘would love to do a collaboration with a fashion brand,’ to follow up her inaugural fashion experience with Charlotte Olympia.

The End of an Era

Marc Jacobs taking his final bow

After 16 years as the designer of the prestigious French label, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs is leaving Louis Vuitton.  Jacobs is leaving the Paris fashion house to focus on his self-titled label based in New York.

So on May 2^nd Jacobs debuted his final collection for Louis Vuitton. Some thought the all-black décor and clothes had mournful implications but it was surprisingly and up-beat occasion. “Jacobs dedicated the collection to the many women who've touched or influenced him during his decade and a half in Paris, including designer muses Coco Chanel, Rei Kawakubo, and Miuccia Prada. You saw bits and pieces of their work in this collection, in addition to callbacks to his own greatest hits. To the showgirl in all of us,"

The Louis Vuitton show is always the highlight of Paris week. All the clothes were elaborately ornamented with combinations of jet beads, crystals, and glossy feathers for a showgirl inspired collection. Each model wore an extravagant headpiece with ostrich feathers designed by Stephen Jones. Even though this was such an ornate collection there were still elements of street style, which are always seen in Marc Jacobs New York shows. “Jacobs seemed to be making a point with those all-Americanisms, and a timely one at that, given his imminent refocusing on his own New York-born brand. It was perhaps no surprise that the American press led the standing ovation.”