I’ll say something nice about Blake Lively to begin with – since her pregnancy, giving birth to James and everything else in her life, she really has been keeping a lower profile overall. Over the last year especially, it never really felt like she was in our faces on a daily level. It’s good to take a break from that kind of “celebrity lifestyle” where you’re feeding on the attention and all of that. So, good for her.
Now, the bad. Blake is still doing Preserve, her lifestyle/shopping site and she’s still shilling her one-of-a-kind (not really), artisanal crap. It really does feel like a version of Goop, especially the Goop Store. In any case, one of Blake’s latest Preserve items is the bag, seen below.
You can see the bag on Preserve here. She named this somewhat ugly bag “The James Bag,” as in she’s named it after her daughter. She worked with Sandast to create a “custom-made baby bag” in “cognac leather.” I had a similar bag (in black leather) more than a decade ago and I’m pretty sure I only paid like $20-30 for it (it was at some kind of outlet). So how much does it cost to own The James Bag? $860. For a leather bag that will hold diapers and binkies.
I’m sort of torn about this. Like, if Gwyneth Paltrow offered a custom-designed Goop baby bag, I’m sure her version would be A) cuter and B) more expensive. Like, I don’t think the “cognac” color came out correctly for this bag and the design really isn’t that cute, especially for the price. Gwyneth’s version would be grey or black and it would probably be $2000, at the low end. Out of curiosity, I just went on Goop to see if she had anything comprable. As it turns out, she has a few affordable purses, but a leather purse/briefcase type bag (like the James Bag) costs $1495. So maybe the James Bag IS affordable… in certain circles.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Preserve.
That first photo in Headline is sooo funny. LOL
Second photo is stunning though.
I wouldn’t waste a penny on her or Goops offerings. lol
Nice color of bag
I still like her, even with all her website goings on
lol
yeah, putting poopy diapers in a leather bag is such a good idea.
I was coming to point this out! Two kids ago, I decided “stylish mommy with places to be” was the way to go and bought a leather hobo type satchel as a diaper bag. Guess what? after a week it smells exactly as you would think- a toxic combo of hot baby poop+leaking milks+old, steamed out leather. not a great combo and if it was left in the car over night, you had to drive with the windows down for a week. save yourself. go get a target gym bag and move on with life, youre going to go through 6 diaper bags anyway, keep it simple.
also, is she still a thing?
She still has Loreal commericals in Euorpe and U.S. running.
“youre going to go through 6 diaper bags anyway, keep it simple.”
I agree with “keep it simple” but my reason why is the opposite of yours. I only had one child, and it looks like you have at least 2, so I think that is part of the difference. I would never tell a new mom to spend $900 on a diaper bag because for me, that stage was so short lived. I mean, YES, you need something to carry all the babies stuff with you. But I didn’t always use mine. Sometimes, I just left it in the trunk of the car. In which case, a storage bin would have worked the same.
If we went to a family holiday dinner, I would end up needing to bring more than JUST the bag (like toys, PJS for car ride home, blanket for the floor. extra toys etc,) so I would just take a larger tote and bring ALL of it in that.
If had had more kids, the diaper bag could have seen more use. But with one, mine was not used all that long. The idea of spending $860 on something that for me was used sporadically over the course of one year seems ludicrous. Not to mention, it looks like a purse and if you can afford a $860 diaper bag, you probably have loads of large leather purses. Use one of those if you feel the need to be THAT fashionable.
the leather one i bought was around 70$, hardly the big ticket item. we ended up using a boat bag for all extra clothes items, snack etc, and it lived in the car.
@ Arock
I like your attitude! Nobody needs a 860 Dollar leather bag for poopy diapers. Btw. if you calculate how many hours one would have to work to afford that bag if your are on the minimum wage (7,25 US minimum wage of 2009 according to google):
869 / 7,25 = 118,6
That is about how “practical” Lively’s James bag is. It is obscene.
According to the Preserve website it is sold out. I also find it telling you can’t look into the bag as there is no pic of the inside.
@pondering thoughts – not all products in this world are made for everyone.
Why would anyone on minimum wage be following Blake’s upper class nonsense? Just because it exists and it’s available to buy, doesn’t mean it’s being marketed to everyone nor should minimum wage people be considering purchasing.
Gwenyth though thinks everyone should buy big; didn’t she make some crack about black friday sales? Why would someone buy 20 crappy bags when they could buy one designer bag?
I know, gross. I had a black nylon diaper backpack from the Gap and it was perfect. The price was right, too.
Would you carry around sh*t stained nappies all day? Odd…
That bag looks cheap. It looks like something you’d find at Walmart.
I agree, the leather doesn’t look high quality. The odd texture seems to have made the color take unevenly. I think that kind of leather might work with some leather goods, more rustic styles, but it doesn’t seem to work with that prim of a style of bag.
Girl, you can’t out Goop the Goop. the leather is not even endangered *ANYTHING* and the metals are not forged by the Dwarven Lords of Helm’s Deep. Pass….
Lol
lol
lol!!
lol! I love that! “You can’t out Goop the Goop”!
pffft…the Dwarves didn’t hole up at Helms Deep, that was the folks from Rohan.
😉
She looks like a Duggar in that first photo.
Picture fits the headline.
Didn’t this used to be an actress or something?
Looks like an old worn out bag from Goodwill.
I remember having bowling balls for eyes when random blogger I used to read posted about a $250 leather diaper bag . I remember being like lol, bye.
Sooo…this is still happening.
Is she the next sjp? I have a feeling her career won’t get huge until later in life when she has a resurgence and that she (like sjp) will always play the same 3 roles. That bag is an ugly ass color….like someone murdered the cow and didn’t bother cleaning it off before they folded it over a changing pad. Not worth half what she’s charging.
Nope. SJP has tons of energy and personality. Blake is watching paint dry.
Blake Lively married well. I wonder if that marriage will last. She didn’t seem too picky to me as her criteria seemed to be :
1. rich and famous
2. good looking
Even Dicaprio got a shot.
His career has really crapped out since Green Lantern. I wonder if she thought he’d remain a bigger star.
I would never ever pay that much for a bag, and if it’s real leather that’s problematic, but I LOVE the bag. It’s gorgeous, Love the colour, love the fact that it’s robust, I love everything about it.
Me too.
But apparently its sold out she has FAR richer supporters that I could never touch. Lol, off to TopShop.
Holy crap!! I thought that header pic was Jessa Duggar losing her freaking mind at first!!
Wow…Vampi needs to go night-night. Insomnia makes Vampi loopy and talk about herself in the third person, apparently.
G’night Celebitches. Till the morrow… 🙂
wauw, already out of stock
Is it? Wow
That’s proof people will buy anything if a celebrity is attached to it.
Probably because there were only two or three for sale! FEH! 😛 lol
The bag is sold out now. I like Blake Lively, and you know, maybe she’s not going to pretend that her items are for the average consumer. She’s obviously going for the 1 percent market, however, things like this (and my God especially Goop) just comes off so, so, pretentious. I think she could have easily had more items available that were more affordable and still chic. I’m hoping whoever the next celebrity “lifestyle” site will follow this route.
Sold out. wow, she does have her fans.
Ugly bag. It looks cheap and this color is called burgundy not cognac.
Amen!
I like the bag. Not as a diaper bag and not for that price, but I wouldn’t call it ugly.
Valois, I agree with you.I do not see the point of all this. If it is hand-made, natural, well-cured leather (i.e. it does not stink), it is not inordinately expensive. In Europe one would pay over 1000 euro (euro, not dollars). In addition, remember that part of the money goes to charity. If I want to buy a simple gold band, I do not go for Bulgari, Cartier or De Grisogono. Of course. I love to check out their online catalogues, purely for aesthetic enjoyment. I would not dream of accusing them of being insensitive to those who are experiencing financial stringencies. They hep the economy. Nobody is forcing anyone to buy the f*ing bag. No cause for indignation, therefore.
Say what you will, this is smart, the mark-up is huge and if pretentious show off idiots buy this more power to her.
How’s Preserve doing anyhow?
My diaper bag back in the day was a black nylon Prada tote with two separate zippered compartments. It wasn’t a diaper bag but worked like a charm. I even had a matching wallet for it, I still do that match my wallet lol. I once had to wash the interior out in my kitchen sink because something was awry and it came out perfectly. Now how are you going to wash a leather bag out in the sink? Also from a PETA standpoint, bags made completely out of leather just aren’t my thing. Shoes I understand because it’s for walking and your feet and all but a bag to hold stuff, not a necessity.
in that header pic she looks like a Duggar girl.
That is such an ugly bag, but her charging that amount for it is not the wrong thing. The wrong thing is that so many Americans work hard and still have so little, such that big purchases – real things, not an almost thousand dollar bag – are impossible, even when they’re much needed. I’d get way less pi$$y about expensive crap wealthy people buy like I buy band aids.
I love my LL Bean boat tote for a diaper bag. They say it’s not machine washable, but I chuck it in, and it holds up great.
She’s laying low because she’s wildly vain and she looked, well, average after the baby. She’ll emerge (as most of them do) after insane 4 hour a day workouts, a few trips to the surgeon for some postpartum tweaks, and people will say “wow! Gorgeous after baby!”…. It’s pathetic and sounds exhausting. But to be honest, her life revolves around her looks so it is what it is.
When will it be announced a DNA test has been done?
You too should probably see a doctor.
I think she’s low cause she’s being working and filming movies back to back. (Probably still is)
All shooting outside the USA – China, Barcelona, Thailand e.t.c
Bag is the color of a used tampon. No thanks
You should probably see a doctor.
Two kids, one diaper bag (a higher end well-made bag that I still carry 15 years later) and it never smelled like dirty diapers because I never put dirty diapers in it. Who does that?