You can browse through a fantastic range of handbags from Radley, Fiorelli, Jasper Conran, Jane Shilton, Kipling, Mischa Barton, Osprey, John Rocha, & Tula.

Whatever you’re looking for you can be sure that you’ll find it here, and best of all every purchase is made directly with Debenhams & backed by a name you can trust.

Ciccia Bags

With summer well & truly on the way (supposedly!) I thought I’d quickly tell you about these beautiful Ciccia bags, made especially for every girls favourite past time – shopping!

These ciccia shopper bags just really caught my eye – functional, practical, not too outlandish & yet not understated either.

It’ll only be a couple of months before the summer seasons bags are out in full force, so if you want to pick up any of the more stylish bags from this seasons ranges then nows the time to do it – shops are rapidly selling out of the stock they have left & the manufacturers aren’t going to be restocking, so get moving girls or lose it forever!

See the full range of ciccia bags here.

I’m sure that many of you will already know about Ciccia, but for thos who don’t, Ciccia was established a couple of years ago by Ruth Pinnock, an ex Radley designer, so it’s hardly surprising that they have a very Radley look to them.

This Ciccia “Cats & Swing” bag is typical of the quirky, stylish, and eyecatching handbags produced by Ciccia, so it’s no wonder that they are starting to give Radley a run for their money.

I have heard that when Ciccia first started they were almost written off by some, since they summised, no shop would want to have both Radley & Ciccia side by side on the shelves. Well, how wrong could they be?

It is far from unusual to go into a handbag shop & find that they stock both Radley and Ciccia together, which I suppose goes a long way to showing you what people really think of Ciccia, and how serious a competitor they are to the stranglehold that Radley has had on this section of the market.

We love Ciccia, not just for the innovative designs, the quality of the handbags, or their quirkyness, but also because their styles cover a very broad range and there is really something there for everyone, for every occassion, and we’re sure that Ciccia will only go from strength to strength.

You can see the full range of Ciccia bags at www.leatherhandbags.org.uk

The website is at www.leatherhandbags.org.uk and is a daughter site of Behold the Bag Ltd, who started life as a handbags shop in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, expanded to have bags available in retail premises in Keighley, and Padiham, and who are now making their gorgeous handbags available online in a serious way.

This leather handbags website will be the first of a few specialised sites, each will concentrate on a specific area, like fashion bags, purses, etc, so no prizes for guessing what leatherhandbags.org.uk is all about!

Rather than just banging on about the same old names that everyone knows & can find in any high street shop, we thought that we’d use our knowledge of the handbag industry to tell you about the great names that don’t seem to be very well recognised outside the industry itself.

Since we seem to be heading into a recession, and money is already becoming tight, we reasoned that people would still want to look & feel good, but would want to get more for their money than when they bought a well known brand of handbag, & indeed any other big named fashion accessory, whether it’s clothing, sunglasses, belts, or anything else.

Thats why we just had to include Smith & Canova handbags, since their leather handbags are at least as good as anything else out there, and are probably in a lot of cases far superior to even the well known names that everyone seems to crave after.

Smith & Canova handbags are always made from the finest quality leathers & metal fittings, they are always extremely fashionable without being over the top, and their prices are absolutely incredible when you consider what you are getting in return for your money.

In fact, Smith & Canova handbags are so good that Smith & Canova manufacture the Harrods range of handbags, which should really give you an indication of just how good they are.

The beautiful handbag above is typical of what you can expect from Smith & Canova, and since a picture paints a thousand words I won’t say anything else about it, except that it is priced at just £87.50 – compare this to what you’ll pay for a mediocre “named” bag & you’ll soon see why we’re so passionate about companies like Smith & Canova.

If you can’t justify spending money on a leather handbag, then Smith & Canova have a sister range (Claudia Canova) of fashion bags that are equally as impressive, and of course cost less than the leather range, coming in at around £45.

Both Smith & Canova handbags & Claudia Canova handbags are available from Behold the Bag of Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

Below are just two designs, both are typically Prada (click the images for a zoomed image).

Prada Shopper Bag

This Prada shopper I think is just wonderful, made from a jacquard material & proudly sporting a large Prada logo, the brown leather handles offset the colour of the fabric beautifully, and it is just as nice on the inside, with zipped and open pockets, very useful for a girl when she’s out shopping.

Prada doesn’t come cheap, and this shopper bag has a price tag of over £700, but is available from those lovely people at koodos for just £349, a saving of over 50% (that works even better than buy one get one free)!

I also wanted to include the lovely little jacquard handbag below which I think is absolutely adorable. It too comes with a nice big Prada logo prominently positioned on the material, and although a darker material, the brown calfskin leather handles and strap again contrast perfectly against the fabric.

This is more of a classically inspired handbag, and is also available from Koodos for £479 against a recommended price of £600, so another good saving to be had there!

Prada Jacquard Handbag

Don’t forget too about the 10% discount that you can get at Koodos using the code KOODOSDISCOUNT !

Featured this month are Louise Hempleman’s gorgeous designer handbags, designer handbags with a difference – you don’t need to break the bank to own one!

Wouldn’t we all just love to buy our very own genuine designer handbag, a nice Fendi, or Gucci, or maybe a Prada, something drop dead gorgeous that would make us feel fantastic every time that we walked out of the door with it swinging from our arm?

I know that I would but like most other people, try as I might, I just can’t justify lavishing £500+ on myself no matter how much I tell myself that I honestly really do need that incredible piece of arm candy & how much better my life would be if I had it!

Sad as this is I still would never succumb to buying one of those knock offs that the bloke sells down at the local market, to me they just scream “she’s all fur coat & no knickers,” and whilst some people might say that’s true, I certainly don’t intend to go around advertising it!

No, if I can’t have the real thing then I’ll do without thank you kindly.

That’s why I was delighted & excited to discover the Hempleman Collection by English designer Louise Hempleman, & why I just had to include them as this months featured handbags.

Louise Hempleman is a colourful enough character herself, she is the daughter of famous English explorer David Hempleman-Adams, & has a lot of experience in the fashion industry – she started out designing the handbags faithful & enduring companion, & other must have accessory, the shoe.

The Hempleman Collection handbags really are just something else.

Stunning eye catching designs are perfectly balanced with the highest quality materials & manufacturing, & the prices have to be seen to be believed – you can pay more for a run of the mill, mass produced bag that’s sold in every other high street shop than you’d part with for one of these beauties, incredible when you consider that these are leather handbags, not synthetics!

There is a great selection of styles, colours, & designs, like the green & white handbag above from the “St Tropez” range (£145), the amazing “Betty Barrel” below (£145), the stunningly beautiful “Victoria” range (an incredible £125), & the ultra elegant “Monaco” which comes in 3 sizes (£145, £175, & £225) shown at the end of this article, to name but 4 of my favourites!

For me one of the things that makes the Hempleman Collection stand out is the clever way that Louise Hempleman has managed to mix both contemporary styles & fashions, & yet at the same time to draw inspiration from the timeless simplicity, grace, & sophistication from the era associated with big screen stars such as Audrey Hepburn.

The Monaco range of handbags for example epitomises this perfectly, with simple lines, a wonderful kind of almost pleated leather, & fantastic contrasting trims creating a simple, yet beautiful overall look – think Breakfast at Tiffanys & you’ll see what I mean.

Personally one of the things that appeals to me the most about owning any designer handbag is not just the name, or the look, it’s that you should be getting something of a far superior quality to the mass produced high street handbags, but I’ve often thought that this isn’t necessarily the case, & that often 50% plus of the price is in the name of the maker.

That’s partly why I decided to start this online bags & handbags magazine – to find companies that make exceptional quality, highly desirable bags but that don’t have an expensive big brand name to inflate the price, meaning that you’re only paying for the bag – which can save you enormous amounts of money – so keep coming back because we’ve found quite a lot of them!

This, of course, is one of the things that I love about the Hempleman designer handbags – the look, the obvious quality, & the price reflecting just the handbag itself.

This still seems odd though because Louise’s handbags have appeared in Vogue magazine among many others, & are sold, as I understand, in Harvey Nichols & Harrods, so they are hardly “unknown.”

Perhaps it’s just that they are still an up & coming name (they haven’t been around for that long after all), perhaps they’ll be the next “name” in designer handbags, but for now I’m left with a troubling dilemma.

I said at the beginning of this article that I couldn’t justify spending £500 on one jaw dropping piece of arm candy, so now that I’ve found myself a range of designer handbags where I really, really do actually defintely need to buy myself one the question is, do I just buy one Hempleman designer handbag, put the change in my purse & pat myself on the back for saving myself £350, or do I buy 3 Hemplemans for under £500 & pat myself on the back for getting such an incredible deal….

Hempleman handbags are available at Behold the Bag and from their new handbags website.