If you’re a true bag lover, there’s nothing more exciting than flipping through the available pieces at a luxury auction. Sure,, it’s fun to walk into a store and see what’s available, but when you’re shopping for vintage or pre-owned bags, the entire world opens up to you. Bags that are only available to longtime VIPs or that disappeared from store shelves season ago are suddenly at your fingertips, and there’s no better shopping rush than laying hands on something rare that you’ve been lusting after. Luckily for you, the Christie’s Vintage Couture Handbags and Accessories Auction is going on now through June 24. The auction features the usual suspects in the world of highly covetable handbags – Hermes, Chanel and Louis Vuitton. In it, you’ll find lots of exotic, special edition and otherwise hard-to-find bags in excellent condition, including several jaw-dropping crocodile Birkins in colors like hunter green and dark purple. Below, check out our favorites from the sale and then head over to Christies.com to bid on this auction, which is exclusive to the venerable auction house’s website. If you don’t have an inheritance to rely on, don’t feel left out – bags in this auction start as low as ?250.
The vast majority of the bags that we feature during our weekly man bag sojourns are, to put it bluntly, a bit drap. Most men like it that way; colors, especially brights, are generally reserved to ladies and the more flamboyant gays. I’m not sure who decided that wearing color was un-masculine,, but I’d like to disagree. Men look great in color at the same rate women do, and judging by the Salvatore Ferragamo Revival Duffel Bag, some Italian gents agree with me.It’s a startling thing to encounter a cerulean duffel bag on a page full of brown, black and grey men’s options, but Ferragamo has gone all-in on this color for spring. You can get a messenger bag and several types of shoulder bags (which look more like actual purses than many of the dudes I know might be comfortable with) in the same shade, but I, as always, am partial to the duffel. Not only does this shape lend itself to the widest variety of uses (everything from work bag to carry-on), but it’s the one that I’d most like to steal for myself. Humans are, after all, fundamentally self-interested creatures.The combination of shape and color gives this duffel an almost Mad Men-era feel to it, like a Pan-Am pilot might use it to stow his extra uniform on a long-haul flight. That period of time has become almost synonymous with a dapper menswear look, but the textured leather of this bag means that it’ll stay looking fresh until we all have flying cars. (Just kidding. We’re never getting flying cars. The Jetsons was a lie. Buy through Nordstrom for $2,150.
