Beautiful Charity: Love, Alex Handbags Fall Line Preview

By: Anne M. Raso

I enjoyed getting to see the new fall line from Love, Alex handbags at their showroom near Carnegie Hall. This is the first ever fall line for the company whose bags are sold in exclusively boutiques and on LoveAlex.com. The unique thing abut these handbags is not only that they are designed by Alexandra Clancy, former on-air reporter and wife of famous author Tom Clancy, but she gives a percent of proceeds to children's charities. Her first-ever collection (the Spring 2013 line) is in stores now and ranges from $950 to $2500 but it's no longer a "guilty pleasure" to spend so much on a bag when you're doing such a philanthropic thing by buying one!

Metal Snakeskin Bag

Alex's unique metal logo reminds us of the classic Pierre Cardin logo of the 60s and 70s, and we love that she's up for anything in the design and materials department. There are doctor's bags, square clutches and even a gray faux fur muff that does double duty as a small shoulder bag with a bold metal link should strap. It's hard not to love the fact that she mixes alligator, snake, croc, leather, pony skin, real fur, fake fur and boiled wool. Many of the bags are in matte metallics, and she is not afraid to team silver and gold bags with chains in the opposite hue. These are fantasy bags, but have real function. She has New York ladies in mind on the jumbo bags that include seven or eight compartments, key rings and removable zipper cases.

By the way, Clancy was kind enough to recently make donations to visiting journalists' children's charities of choice. For more info, go to lovealex.com and to learn about their philanthropic efforts with donorschoose.org. Check out the Aspen python bag on the site and tell us if you don't have fantasies about it for weeks.

Photos by Anne Raso