Mary Kate Olsen, Kristen Cavallari, Ashley Tisdale, & Rihanna carry Alexander Wang

Remember when you could snag a fabulous designer handbag for three-digits?

Ten years ago you could buy a hot new handbag from Gucci, Fendi, Prada, or Louis Vuitton for under $1,000, but these days it seems that most handbags START in that price range. In the age of $1,500 Christian Louboutin stiletto’s and five-figure handbags, the market for these coveted luxury items have sky-rocketed, shooting the prices for these items through the roof. Now, a crop of young designers are carving out their own niche in the accessories market mixing luxury with a reasonable price point.

Alexander Wang Coco Duffel

With handbags priced mainly between $600 and $1,200 designers such as Alexander Wang, Rebecca Minkoff, Be&D, and Gryson have been producing arm candy that looks expensive, but won’t break the bank. The fashion-forward styles and high-end materials have defined these designers as an emerging category and an alternative to pricier designer bags.

Rebecca Minkoff Mini Nikki

“Brands like ours that can offer fantastic design, material and make at a price under $1,000 could be considered the ‘new designer,’ where a consumer can get great designer merchandise but not from European houses,” Peter Gryson, president and chief executive officer of the four-year-old Gryson line, told WWD of the brands handbag line which retails from $800 to $1,200. “Even with some price compression, the Prada’s and the Gucci’s are still functioning at over $1,200 a unit, so as a new breed of branding and positioning, we’re offering great value in regards to the quality of make.”

Gryson "Olivia" Bag

When Alexander Wang hosted a trunk show at Barneys’ Madison Avenue flagship in October 2009 to debut his Spring / Summer 2010 collection, he had no idea what he was in for. “When I got to Barneys, I was welcomed with the news that our Rocco bag had a waiting list of 400-plus. By day’s end, their entire Spring 2010 handbag order sold out with pre-buys—and that’s before it will even hit the floor. Yikes! Good news, but now we’re going to have to figure out how to produce more bags so our section won’t be empty come January.”

The $850 Alexander Wang Coco Duffel bag has been carried by Hollywood starlets such as Mary-Kate Olsen, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rihanna, Ashley Tisdale and Kristin Cavallari and was reinterpreted for spring.

Olivia Palermo Carrying Be&D "Genesis" Bag

For fall Saks Fifth Avenue partnered with Rebecca Minkoff on a higher-end line called Rebecca Minkoff Collection, which is geared to the sophisticated consumer looking to trade down from luxury labels. The collection features day bags with rose gold trims and premier skins as well as decorated evening clutches, all retailing from $600 to $1,500.

Be&D Genesis Bag

Be&D made a strong showing during New York Fashion Week in February after Olivia Palermo and Mena Suvari were both spotted carrying the Be&D Genesis bag. In fact, when I saw Palermo at the Ports 1961 show, I was mesmerized with her cream colored croc-embossed Genesis bag and promptly scoured the web looking for the source (I thought it was YSL).

Other celebs are loving the Be&D as well, including the cast of Gossip Girl, Jessica Stam, Eva Longoria, and Margherita Missoni.

The black Genesis bag retails for $1095 and can be purchased at ShopBop.com

Seven hot designers have created capsule collections for Lucky Magazine and HSN and they go on sale TONIGHT! This is just another great way to deliver fashion to the masses.

Lucky Magazine got 7 top designers to whip up unique pieces and price them way lower than their regular collections. The result is Lucky Shops: Designer Event for HSN which will premiere tonight. Lucky and HSN teamed up to create this fabulous line of limited-edition clothing, accessories, and jewelry created by Shoshanna, Rebecca Taylor, Tracy Reese, Abbe Held of Kooba, Gerard Yosca, Rebecca Minkoff, and Helen Ficalora.

Be sure to order quick because I am certain these items will sell out fast.  Lucky Shops: Designer Event will debut on HSN on Friday, October 16 from 8PM to 10PM ET, and Saturday, October 17, from 8AM to 10AM ET. hsn.com/luckyshops

Shoshanna

Shoshanna Gruss is famous for her come-hither frocks and flattering cuts, but as a native New Yorker, she also knows the value of practicality. “I love a dress with pockets so you can hide your phone or lip gloss,” she says. For this line, Gruss stayed true to her trademarks: seasonless prints, versatile fabrics, and of course “getting the waistbands just right to carve out hourglass shapes on everyone.” Shoshanna went on to say, “When the cut of the dress is simple, you can get away with really bold colors.”

What She’s Making: 2 sexy cocktail dresses (2 to 3 colors each): SCOOP-NECK PRINCESS DRESS, $64.90, CHIFFON DRESS, $79.90, SHOSHANNA

Rebecca Taylor

Since 1996, the New Zealand-born designer has amassed a devoted following thanks to her flair for balancing grown-up pieces with romantic accents, like a prim pencil skirt done in a big painterly floral. Taylor continued on that theme for us here, doing a lightly ruffled cardigan that she calls “cozy, warm, and delicately feminine.” She added, “I wanted to make a sweater that would work with a dress as easily as with a pair of jeans.”

What She’s Making: 1 chic, drapey cardigan (5 colors): RAYON-BLEND CARDIGAN, $64.90, REBECCA TAYLOR

Tracy Reese
Walk into Tracy Reese’s store and you’ll be bombarded with bold colors, prints, and textures, yet there’s a wear-anywhere sensibility to her clothes that we can’t get enough of. Case in point: this asymmetric jersey frock. It’s sexy, goddessy, and artfully draped, but “it’s not just a special-occasion dress,” says Reese, adding that she chose muted fabrics to make it universally flattering. “The design comes from the draping. I didn’t want any adornments.”

What She’s Making: 1 body-skimming party dress and 1 dolman-sleeved jersey cardigan (4 colors each):

JERSEY DRESS, $89.90, JERSEY CARDIGAN, $54.90, CORSAGE BY TRACY REESE

Gerard Yosca

Yosca’s jewelry is the kind of thing people stop you on the street and ask you about: The designs are intricate, the colors vibrant, the metals luminous. His most recent inspirations are the heavily worked Byzantine and Indian pieces you’d find in a museum. “I took that exotic aesthetic and filtered it through a lighter, cleaner lens,” he says. “I love how it moves—it sort of jingle-jangles with all the metal and stones.”

What He’s Making: 2 ethnic-feeling necklaces with handmade glass drops and 2 pairs of matching earrings

CRYSTAL AND GLASS BEADED BIB NECKLACE, $129, BEADED PEAR-SHAPED DROP EARRINGS, $54.90, GERARD YOSCA

Abbe Held for Kooba

After Abbe Held spent years searching for the perfect handbag—”modern but with the attention to detailing you can only find in vintage”—she decided to just make it herself. The result sparked her wildly successful line, Kooba. This bag cleverly aces her signature formula: The shape is right on trend, while the patent finish is weatherproof, klutz-proof, and night-on-the-town-proof. “I used one of my favorite design accents—a bit of equestrian-inspired hardware—on the handles.”
What She’s Making: 1 stylishly oversize satchel: PATENT BAG, $225, KOOBA

Rebecca Minkoff
Known for high-quality leather and tricked-out hardware, Minkoff’s bags are the ideal combination of hard and soft. The California native chose iconic styles—a slouchy hobo, a roomy saddlebag—then dressed them up with a single, high-impact detail. “I wanted to put the perfect elements together,” she says. “All of these were made to transition from day to night seamlessly.” Minkoff added, “The right color or texture is all you need to convey a little attitude in a simple, direct way.”

What She’s Making: 4 classic, go-anywhere handbags (2 to 4 colors each)

LEATHER “ENCHANTMENT” BAG, $250, STUDDED LEATHER “VALENTINE” HOBO, $199.90, EMBOSSED LEATHER “RAPTURE” BAG, $250, MINKETTE BY REBECCA MINKOFF

Helen Ficalora

Ficalora’s coveted necklaces—with their weathered, imperfect, ever-so-slightly battered look—are made to “have an heirloom feel,” she says, “like they belonged to your grandmother a long time ago.” For us, she created two charm necklaces—one with a horseshoe and a four-leaf clover inset with a brilliant-cut ruby, the other with a key and love charm—bearing the graceful allure of her signature line. “I love to mix different-shaped charms because it gives the necklace an interesting dynamic.”
What She’s Making: 2 delicate sterling silver charm sets

SILVER “LUCKY” CHARM NECKLACE, $99, SILVER “LOVE” CHARM NECKLACE, $99, HELEN FICALORA

Last month, “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Danielle Staub’s teen daughter, Christine Staub, signed with IMG models. During New York Fashion week, Christine made her debut first on the cover of The Daily and then walking in the Rebecca Minkoff show.

Christine Staub landed the cover of The Daily last weekend, which is the must-read of fashion week. This week, Staub finally took a twirl on the catwalk during Rebecca Minkoff’s ready-to-wear presentation in front of a star-studded crowd including Gerard Butler, Lauren Conrad, Michelle Trachtenberg, and, of course, her mom “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Danielle Staub.

Bravo’s camera crew was there to capture her runway debut and onlookers said Christine looked like a pro in a one-shoulder white asymmetrical dress and grey sky-high booties from Rebecca Minkoff’s spring 2010 collection.

The Daily, Fashion Week’s daily glossy that recounts all the shows, parties and gossip from the day before, billed Christine as “America’s next beauty”. Staub, 5’10″ and just fifteen years old, entered the 10th grade in September as an honor student. “This is all very new to me,” she told The Daily. “I’ve never really done any modeling before, so I’m just learning while I have a chance and being guided by the best in the business. I’m also getting used to industry people looking at my face so closely!”