The designer famous for its handbags and shoes is now adding scents to its line of products. Apparently, having a Jimmy Choo perfume has been in the works for over two years, but the fragrance is now set to appear by January 2010. The Jimmy Choo perfume is a women’s fragrance but, at this point, the scent hasn’t been revealed yet. Although considering the ostentatious nature of many of Jimmy Choo’s shoes and handbags, anything is possible, really. As the president behind Jimmy Choo wants to accessorize the whole woman, wouldn’t the perfume need to match the shoes and the handbag?

Jimmy Choo styles change with each season, and this past season, with studs on leather a popular theme, Jimmy Choo shoes and handbags have also received the stud treatment. But what sort of fragrance would match with this type of ensemble? Whether or not you consider studs to be western or rocker chic, a grass or an aqua fragrance definitely wouldn’t go with the rest of the accessories. Out of fruity, floral, and sweet (or dessert) smelling fragrances, the most likely would be a floral combination or a citrus perfume. But, with designers for perfumes sometimes combining two types of perfumes, such as grass and floral or citrus and floral, a Jimmy Choo perfume might smell completely different from everything else out there at the moment.

Or maybe not. A fragrance often completes a brand’s image. Adidas fragrances, for example, live up to the athletic image of the sneaker and clothing brand by having combinations of citrus and light floral notes – not too strong but not too subtle in either case. Jimmy Choo, on the other hand, is known for being high end, ostentatious, and synonymous with Sex and the City. In this case, anything is possible, although Jimmy Choo and general fragrance lovers should expect a complex, multi-level fragrance to complement the other accessories by the brand.

English pop star Lily Allen may be known for questionable fashion sense – poufy prom dresses and sneakers, anyone? – but, like many celebrities and singers, is coming out with a more prominent clothing label and possibly collaborating with Chanel for handbag designs. While Chanel, a brand often associated with classic and sophisticated style, and Lily Allen seem to go together like oil and water, celebrity products or fashion endorsements are nothing new. Allen already has a clothing line, albeit under-promoted, in the UK at fashion retailer New Look. Her new fashion products, particularly a Chanel handbag, could cross the pond and possibly be seen in North American stores.

So far, in terms of working with Chanel, her style has been a bit more sophisticated than the ruffled I-store-this-prom-dress look that Allen typically sports. While InStyle has pictures of , blog Nitrolicious has pictures of Allen’s line for New Look, which looks more like the style associated with Allen.

While many celebrity lines or products, with fragrances in particular, seldom resemble the clothing that the celebrity of singer sports, at least the fashion seen on Lily Allen resembles clothing she’s often seen in. Is that a good thing? In a sense, yes, as Allen doesn’t have the typical style associated with most pop stars over the past ten years. As Allen has more of a natural women’s figure, her clothing from New Look seems more apt for women of all sizes, be it an American size two or size 14. And, as many fifteen year old girls probably want to dress like the top pop stars of the moment, Allen’s line, so far, is still more modest than cropped, midriff-bearing shirts and low-cut jeans but still stylish and fashionable. Will her new fashion lines, from jewelry to Chanel handbags, continue to reflect this style?

Who says a handbag retailer can’t dabble in another aspect of fashion? Online handbag retailer, Best Handbag Wholesale, recently launched a line of flip flops in western styles for summer. Each of these flip flops sold through Best Handbag consists of a thicker sole by Hide N Sole and a thicker strap on top that is often embellished with rhinestones or studs. This strap, in addition, is most often leather or animal hair, with the rhinestones or studs on top. The soles, to match the strap in style, are a solid color, including pink or black, or are patterned with animal skins, such as leopard spots or zebra print.

Some fashion designers include handbags and footwear in their line, so being all inclusive with fashion is a goal of many brands, and retailers, as well. Some designers, such as musician Carlos Santana, as seen in an earlier post, start off in fashion with shoes and branch off into handbags. In the case of Best Handbag Wholesale’s new flip flop collection, the handbags came first and then the footwear line. In some sense, the footwear is inspired by the western style many of the handbags have.

Summer may be two-thirds of the way over, but it’s never too late to get a pair of flip flops, as flip flops can be worn indoors all year long. If you’re looking for some unique style – western flip flops – then look no further. Traditional flip flops are solid colored or embellished with a flower, small beads, or stones, but this collection of western flip flops takes the style associated with western clothing, including western stones like turquoise, and applies it to flip flops. Western styles come and go, but with these flip flops, western style is in during the summer.

With the current economy, it’s no surprise that Coach’s sales are down for handbags. But, the other half of that argument is, how long can you go with a design before everyone and their mother gets tired of it? Coach’s solution to that seems to be their new line, Poppy, with bright colors and patterns to appeal to a younger demographic. While the traditional brown-and-tan “C” pattern still seems to be popular with adults and college-age women, it’s irrelevant to high school girls by seeming too conservative and, frankly, too 2003. With the ‘80s styles coming back, such as skinny jeans, off-the-shoulder shirts, and bright colors and patterns, having a staid-colored handbag just doesn’t go with the outfit.

The line, according to an article on Forbes.com, was launched on June 26 but, after visiting Coach’s website and comparing this line with their handbags from fall 2008, the designs look too similar. Coach, aside from trying to appear to a younger audience by using bright colors and atypical textures, doesn’t seem to be straying much from designs used the past year. Out of the slideshow of the collection shown on Coach’s website, the design aspects of these new handbags include bright colors, including pinks, oranges, and blues, and patent leather surfaces. Other options, as seen in this brief peek, include sequined-covered handbags.

What about the “C” logo? Some of the bags still have it but sans serif and in brighter colors or as a patchwork-style handbag with the older material mixed up with other colorful pieces of material. Aside from these new exceptions, the only way anyone would know these were Coach handbags would be by the metal label. The bag designs, themselves, are standard handbags, with some slouch, or hobo, bag styles being used, but most of the bags in this collection, it seems, are a larger, square-shaped bag with a strap attached. For a better picture of what Coach is offering through Poppy, blog Nitrolicious has a few snapshots of the clothes and the handbags.

Many top designers over the past few years have made secondary lines for more affordable retailers, such as Vera Wang’s Simply Vera for Kohl’s and Isaac Mizrahi’s line made for Target. Jimmy Choo is the next designer brand to do a line for worldwide retailer H&M and, according to an article published in The Telegraph, this new line of clothes for H&M will include both men’s and women’s fashions, as well as shoes and handbags.

For shoes and handbags, Jimmy Choo has been the brand of choice, seen on celebrities and mentioned in television shows like Sex and the City. As mentioned in this article, the shoes and handbags are the center of the outfit, while the clothes are the accessory.

As fashion magazines and television shows make the average person pine for high fashion, Jimmy Choo at H&M will offer the same or similar styles but at prices more affordable to the average shopper. H&M already collaborates with other designers like Stella McCartney and Karl Largerfeld to create fashionable and stylish but affordable clothing, and Jimmy Choo is next in that line up. While the fashions aren’t expected to appear at H&M until November 14, this article offers a peek of the upcoming fashions based on Jimmy Choo designs at H&M.

Not all H&M locations will be offering this line of clothing, however, and, as mentioned in the Telegraph article, only 200 stores worldwide will be carrying the clothing, with multiple locations in England but none listed, yet, in the US. If you’re looking for an affordably-priced Jimmy Choo handbag, H&M is one option instead of resorting to knockoffs and designer-inspired handbags. If the H&M location at your local mall doesn’t carry any handbags from the Jimmy Choo line, the website for H&M has a store locator, which can help with finding the closest store selling Jimmy Choo.

An official summer collection has not surfaced yet for Christian Audigier’s latest line, but Ed Hardy has been and continues to be a hot commodity in 2008 and 2009. From teens to twenty-something club kids to A-list celebrities, the Ed Hardy line is everywhere, much like Audigier’s last high profile line, Von Dutch (trucker hats, anyone?), from a few years ago. So, what makes this line so special that it even has its own imitators in the knockoff market?

It’s the tattoo, style, really, that seems to have caught on so much that even Coach is imitating it for this summer’s collection. The most basic Ed Hardy handbag designs – as well as the rest of the clothing in this line – consist of a solid color field with one of these large, somewhat airbrushed style tattoo designs dominating the surface. The tattoos themselves are basic tattoo designs – skulls and roses of many shades but no “Mother,” hearts with arrows, or girlfriends’ names. These tattoos are then embellished with rhinestones or metal studs on both handbags and clothing for men and women. To state the obvious, when compared to even the flashiest designer handbags, these Ed Hardy bags are different. Gaudiness aside, the bags have a punkish style for the designer crowd, safety pins not included, and have a name attached. Although not on the same nadir as designer flannel and ripped jeans from the early ‘90s, these handbags are, in a sense, the designer version of rebellious, youthful style.

But, really, much like the Von Dutch line, the tattoo patterns on Ed Hardy bags and clothing are confined to a narrow scope and what is a hot commodity now will soon be replaced by something as equally high priced and pseudo-rebellious. To move to the next level and keep these styles relevant for the next few years, it appears that on bags for 2009, the color factor has been upped a few levels on women’s handbags. No longer are the familiar tattoo patterns on a field of black or white but, instead, sit on a field of yellow, lavender, or aqua marine and almost blend into the colored field. The tattoo drawings, themselves, have also been altered for women’s designs, with other options including tattoo women drawings and red and yellow swimming koi fish.

No doubt Ed Hardy will disappear in a few years, in the same way as fashionable flannel, trucker hats, and clear cola have all passed, and Audigier will start another line. But, if these handbags are your thing – and, as said earlier, they are on everyone these days – relish in the fashion moment with these new candy-colored designs.

Coach is one of those borderline handbag brands – some consider it in the top echelon of designer bags, while others see it as the most basic of designer handbags with a style that seldom changes. Coach really hasn’t changed their style significantly over the past decade, with the most popular designs seen on women of all ages being the brown and tan or cream-colored “C” pattern. While something like this would’ve been popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s when brand names were plastered across all pieces of clothing, handbags included, it’s been out of style for a number of years, and Coach, although still keeping the famous “C” design, has switched up their styles and color choices. And, appropriate for the time, they’re also brought back the ‘80s slouch handbag to go with other ‘80s retro fashions like skinny jeans, large Day-Glo earring, and cropped jackets.

Coach’s handbag collection from earlier in 2009 brought the Resort Collection. The title and styles are more appropriate for a summer collection, with such styles introduced as python print with metallic coloring and pink tote styles for both large and small handbags. The “C” logo is still present on many bags in this collection, only the color combination focused on brighter shades, like pink, blues, and light yellow, and, as a result, the “C” logo pops out much better than any tan-on-brown handbags from five years ago. Some examples of these Coach bags include:

Coach’s collection for the upcoming summer, however, focuses less on the shades of pink and leather beach-bag style and, instead, opts for retro-inspired handbags as their strongest designs. These bags use the same old Coach colors, only this season, they’re in metallic shades. The slouch purse style popular in the ‘80s is now referred to as a hobo handbag – here called an “ali hobo” – because of its spaciousness. While many of these are solid colored, some are still printed with the “C” logo in serif and sans serif styles. Unfortunately, as Coach knock-off handbags often differentiate themselves with a sans serif font, the sans serif “C” logo Coach bags resemble knockoffs somewhat. Aside from this aspect, these slouch or hobo Coach handbags can come with a zipper top or a side flap and come in sizes from a clutch to a shoulder bag.

The only questionable handbags in Coach’s summer collection are the Tattoo Canvas Tote bags, all of which bear a strong resemblance to any handbag by Ed Hardy, only with a Coach label, no rhinestones, and washed out colors. If this is one way to compete with Ed Hardy’s styles, Ed Hardy bags still have the upper hand with this tattoo style.

For all Coach designs for this upcoming summer, check Coach’s website for the full product line.