Where did June go??   Someone took the balance of the month while I wasn't looking, and guess what happened? 

Fesjon.com--the super new Dutch fashion commentary and boutique site-- went LIVE with a collection of fifteen Dressed Up Cat bags!  Fesjon.com
These pieces are available for sale ONLY in the fesjon boutique.  It's a varied group:  "Navy Brass", "Anchors Away", and "Swamp Conga" are in keeping with the season;

      


while "Vintage Time" and "Parlour Games" are a little more somber for fall, if you'regetting into the mood.     Fesjon.com Boutique

          
"Fesjon", says founder Mariana Davelaar, is the phonetic of  "fashion".  Even the name is way cool!  Congrats, Mariana, looking good! Go get 'em, girls!

        

In the morning, I'm off to Las Vegas for the Licensing Expo.  Short version?  in a few months, you may not have to pick just one or two bags for your own, you'll be able to have them ALL:  in a book, on your shower curtain, on your 'brelly (umbrella, for we Yanks!), maybe your placemats.

Yes, the photos of Dressed Up Cat Handbags, through the magic of licensing, may soon be in places you never imagined.  Love the Cowgirl Glam collection?  Get 'em all on stationery or boxed gift cards (Hello, Leanin' Tree, are you listening?).  Obsessed with time and need the "All the Time" collection around to keep you prompt?  How about waking up to them on your pillow?  That'll get you out of bed on time!  The possibilities are lots of fun to consider...Stay Tuned.

AND Dressed Up Cat Handbags are crossing the pond!  Yep, in July, you'll be able to find them at the Conishead Priory Gift Shop at the Manjushri Buddhist Meditation Center just outside Ulverston, England. Everyone say thanks to Peter, store manager.

And later this month, look for exclusive listings of some special Dressed Up Cat bags available only on Fesjon.com, the fashion tracking and commentary site, based in the Netherlands.  Your fab ladies in the EU don't have to feel left out anymore!

        

The IDHA announced the nominees yesterday, and I'm not one.  Rats. 

The nominees are all SO great, tho' --here's the link to the site where you can see them all.  Indy Handbag Designer Nominees
My pal Darren Wallace, winner of last year's Best Handmade Award, is again a nominee with a FIERCE blue studded Cayman backpack.  You GO, Darren!

 In the Best Green Category, I think my fave is Andres Stickney's Envirotech Recycled Tire Rubber Clutch with Re-Used Lion Head Drawer Pull    www.dresdesign.com.    The creativity of them all is super inspiring.  Good luck, everyone! 
 
Poor "Last Trophy Bag".  It's very sad not to be a nominee; but on a brighter note, I sold it last night to a VERY good home.  Spit spot.  Movin' on.   I will even have occasional visitation rights.    Along Came a Spider, and and Lizards Night Out also went this week, both to the same collector.  

Now I turn my attention to prepping my presentation for next Wednesday for the Phoenix Art Museum's Arizona Costume Institute.  What fun!

   

        

Today at midnight is the deadline for entries for the 2009 Independent Handbag Designer Awards!

I have to admit, I am very excited. 

Yesterday the Awards sent out an update that the winner of the Best Overall Handbag will be featured at Sacks Fifth Avenue!!  Way to Go, Emily!!!  My entry " The Last Trophy Bag" is not an entry in Best Overall--it's in the Best "Green" category since its from recycled components, but it's still very exciting. 

If anyone wants to get "fired up" with me on this, here is a link to CBS News Early Show  interview with Awards producer Emily Blumenthal the morning after the 2008 Awards.  The winners, AND all the nominees, including "Summertime" (below) are shown in the video.

Cross your fingers, everyone, and stay tuned!

 

        

I made it down to my short list earlier this week, and I finally made my selection.  I submitted my entry yesterday, so "fingers crossed, everyone"!  I love the bag I entered and want to send many, many thanks to the Two Susans--you know who you are--for your feedback and suggestions on the final "tweaks". 

Before you get to see my entry, here are my other shortlist candidates:

"A Little Blown Away"       "SUCH a Tart!"     &      "Leaf-ing Out & Leaf-ing You".         
        

All great bags that I am very happy with.    They were strong candidates.  But here's my entry: 

"The Last Trophy Bag". 

Yep, it looks familiar, cuz you saw it last week as "Trophy Bag", and without it's tassel/zipper pull.  And with a shorter name. 

Here's my description for the competition:   Vintage grey suede & brown snake clutch with grey leather trim and gold-toned corner plates.  Adorned with a "found" 3D resin elephant head sculpture & a hand-braided brown leather & bead tassel, which serves as the zipper pull and represents the elephant's tail. $500.00 This bag encompasses fashion's fatigue with the "it"/trophy bag, a plea for animal conservation, and the current (if slight) cultural shift away from materialism.  

Doesn't it just say it ALL?  Stay tuned--entries close on Tuesday, and I should hear if I'm a finalist soon thereafter.  Fingers crossed, everyone!

        

I'm a Featured Designer with Handbag Designer 101.com! They are the sponsor of the acclaimed (and super cool!) Independent Handbag Designer Awards in NYC, this year on June 17th, 2009, at the New York Historical Society.     YAY!  Thanks to Emily Blumenthal, creator of the awards and founder of HandbagDesigner101.com. The feature includes my interview about Dressed Up Cat with Emily.  It's my best attempt yet to articulate it the what and why of Dressed Up Cat, so check it out!

And today's candidate for my IDHA nomination this year is "Trophy Bag".  I really think this may be the one.  It's a beautiful gray suede vintage clutch/shoulder bag with a zip top and gold corner plates.  The gold shoulder chain is interwoven with gray leather.  There is a diagonal brown snake inset across the front of the bag bounded on each side with the same gray leather as in the shoulder chain.  The perimeter of the bag is also edged in it. 

I've had the bag for awhile and thought it was terrific, and have tried a couple of designs with it but wasn't ever happy with them.  Then one day of February I found it:  a large very life-like resin elephant head, complete with tusks and up-curled trunk.  It looks like a miniature of the big game hunter trophy elephant head (are we as a species OVER that yet??)  It's PERFECT on this bag.

So, given the status of having just the right handbag, AND with a special little "poke" to the girls who want an "it" bag,
here it is:  Trophy Bag! 

                    

        

Well, sports fans / fashion fans / art fans / fans of quirk (I consider you ALL my own...) it's that time.  Last year about now my friend Rosemary Price, managing director of eWomenNetwork here,  forwarded me a little something about the (then) upcoming  Independent Handbag Designer Awardsalso known as the "Handbag Academy Awards".  They were seeking entries, and they even had a category for Best Green Handbag.  As you probably know, my one-of-a-kind bags are all of recycled and "found" components.  Green.  Perfect. 

That "little something" from my friend turned into quite a "big something" for me.  The Awards organizers received over 700 entries from all over the world for prizes in five categories, and my handbag "Summertime" becoming one of five nominees for the 2008 Best Green Handbag!   I went to New York City in June for the ceremony, held at the beautiful New York Historical Society on Central Park West in my old neighborhood.  I met loads of wonderful other designers, Iconoclast Award Recipient Judith Leiber, and generally had a great time re-visiting my city of 11 years in a totally different capacity from my former self!  

Although I wasn't the category winner--Ecoist, the "woven wrapper"handbag folks deservedly took home the trophy--it took me weeks to "wipe that silly smile off my face"!  Here I am at the awards, with "Summertime", and the silly smile.  I'm holding another of my "All About Time" series of bags, an evening bag entitled "Night Time".  

So NOW, it's time for me to pick this year's entry!  It was very tough choosing which of my bags to submit last year, so this year I am calling in recruits--you!  I can only enter one, so through my next few blog entries, I will show you several of my favorites.  Please let me know what you think; either through a comment here, or a phone call, email, whatever works for you--I SO APPRECIATE YOUR INPUT!  Here's my first candidate:  "Serengeti Tears".It's a large vintage Italian woven paper & cotton tote with double rolled leather handles, a magnetic snap top closure & interior zip pocket, a beaded tassel, iridescent rust glass beads and a large, carved wooden giraffe face.  It measures 18"x 11" x 6".
  

        

Did you ever think "sustainable fashion" would be considered cool?  Or hip?  Trendy?  "It"-ish?  (Okay, so I just made up that last one...)  Me either.  I am still tickled and a little in awe of being included in Phoenix Magazine's "Cool Issue 2009" and its cover story "33 of the Hippest People, Places and Things in the Valley".    I'm lucky number 7 on the list.   ONe of the main reasons I'm glad to be included on this particular list is because I think the fashion biz in general puts a lot of icky stuff  (to use the technical terms...) into the environment for rather mindless reasons.  Plus, it generally speaking doesn't treat the folks who make the stuff all that well.  (I recall reading something about "sweatshops"....)  And aren' t we lucky that green fashion doesn't mean burlap anymore?  

        

Well THIS doesn't happen every day.  I have been officially christened "cool".  And by the local bible of All Things Good, too:  our beloved Phoenix Magazine.  It's the one you pick up the instant you hit the Valley of the Sun to see what's good to eat, what's on at the arenas (sports and otherwise) what's in our theaters (and I don't mean movies...yawn) and at our now TWO operas. 

And this month's "2009 Cool Issue", "33 of the Hippest People, Places & Things in the Valley".  And I'm number 7. (GET OUT!  You're kidding!!) No, really.  Stop laughing.   http://www.phoenixmag.com/lifestyle/200903/a-cooling-trend/2/    And they lead off with my telling the nice reporter about my first entrepreneurial experience:  my worm farm at age 9.  OK, THAT's funny...  (Oh, they can really  "worm " it out of you, those reporters.....  sorry, couldn't resist).   But it's a nice article and I've thrilled and flattered.   

        

Some days we are more without direction than others.  Neo in the movie "The Matrix" ended up down the rabbit hole by asking "What's the question?"  When we flounder the most in our search for answers, sometimes its because we are asking the wrong question.  This bag is for those days.  When you can't figure out which end is which, which end is "up", decide just what, in your case, IS the question? And then you take it from there.  

"What's the Question?" is a large black Italian straw shoulder tote with long rolled leather shoulder length straps, heavy gold-toned hardware with inside zip pocket, sporting a large gold-toned metal "question mark". 12" x 5" x 13".   $295.