After a little bit of a delay, audreybag.com is officially open for business and ready to take orders. Apparently, the site was delayed by just a couple of days because Luca Dotti was in charge of designing and maintaining the site, so communications had to go from Italy, where Luca is, to Santa Monica, California, where the Children's Fund offices are. So for all you curious types out there who wonder what Luca's up to, now you know. :)Anyway, go look at the site already! You can sign up for the newsletter the site will release periodically, so you will be notified when the news page is updated and new collections are released. Yes, new collections! So if you were wringing your hands in despair because you couldn't afford any bags from this collection right away, don't worry. There will be roughly two collections per year, plus some one-of-a-kind bags, so there will always be something available for you. Make sure to read the news page while you're visiting, as it has an interview with Sean talking about the inspiration and motivation behind the audreybag, and photos of the bags being made by hand in Italy.
Now that it's up and running, what do you think?
There's some big news today! Huge thanks to sharp-eyed reader Alanna for finding out that the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund is set to release a limited-edition line of handmade Italian purses with Audrey's image on them! There are 12 different designs, with 36 bags of each design being made. So that means a scant 432 bags were made, making it very limited edition. The bags will be available November first, when the official website launches. In the meantime you can read more about the bags and the designs here, and if you'd like to see bigger pictures of all 12 bags, go here and view the PDF press release (link at the top of the page). It has great, full-page pictures of all of the bags, plus dimensions and some information on what the Children's Fund has been up to lately. I can't wait! My favourite is to the left.I'm starting to feel a little like Holly Golightly here. Is there a rich sugar daddy in the house, willing to buy a poor girl a posh handbag? It's for a good cause! :)
I like to feature some handmade Audrey Hepburn artwork when I can, especially when it's made out of pure love for art -- and Audrey, of course. Yesterday I was out wandering the city when I came across a small chocolate shop called Chocolate Covered. I went in out of curiosity (and maybe the need for a good single origin chocolate bar) and stumbled across some great Audrey artwork! The owner of Chocolate Covered keeps his hands very full by not only running the shop, but by also making art tins. Half of the walls are covered with tins showcasing every major street in San Francisco, and the other half are tins with just about every celebrity you'd ever expect to find. The tins are covered with beautiful blue-tinted photographs and Japanese paper, and make for very mellow art. I found a few pictures of Audrey on the wall and left my contact information for the owner. He called back today and said that "by far, Audrey Hepburn is the bestseller" out of all his tins. I can see why! He also said that there are usually a lot more than what was up, but he's been running a little short on time lately and so his Audrey stock is depleted.
Aren't they lovely? And very reasonably priced, considering all of the handwork that goes into each tin. The prices vary from piece to piece, but the price range is from $15-25. These ship anywhere, as well, so if you're interested in any of these tins, please click the link above and call the number at the top of the page for more information (I don't like posting phone numbers here, even if they are business numbers).An extra feature: the lady who was working at the shop that day also runs a dog rescue charity called Rocket Dog Rescue. I thought it would be nice to mention this because Audrey was a dog lover her whole life and I'm sure she would have approved of this organization and all the hard work they do to keep dogs from being unnecessarily euthanized, and to give every pet a good and loving home.
After a little bit of a delay, audreybag.com is officially open for business and ready to take orders. Apparently, the site was delayed by just a couple of days because Luca Dotti was in charge of designing and maintaining the site, so communications had to go from Italy, where Luca is, to Santa Monica, California, where the Children's Fund offices are. So for all you curious types out there who wonder what Luca's up to, now you know. :)
