The Savings in Hand : Store sells expensive bags at wholesale and is an outlet for the Bijoux Medici label.
Several years ago, a local talk show host and television actress let me in on her secret source for expensive handbags at wholesale prices. I’ve been buying there ever since.
The Italian Handbag Showroom is precisely what the name says, but the word outlet should be added for a more complete description. The showroom also acts as an outlet for the Bijoux Medici label, where owner Jerry Blumenthal sells the overage of his inventory and where the fashion-conscious and price-savvy shopper can always find a good deal. The inventory at this shop is small but very select.
Blumenthal’s handbags are seen in shops up and down Rodeo Drive and in specialty shops and boutiques all over the western United States. He makes two or three trips to Milan each year to select the skins and the clasps, or findings, for his bags, and goes over his designs with the manufacturer.
After he has sold the bulk of his inventory, what is left goes to a small shop on the edge of Beverly Hills, where it is marked at wholesale and below prices.
One group of handbags--including some small beige envelopes--retailing from $129 to $159 are tagged to close out at $59. The merchandise in an $89 grouping (retail $195 to $229) caught my eye: A black patent leather with ornate findings and chain, some white and beige baby lamb leather bags embossed to achieve a lacy look, and a very mod sports bag in a cognac shade were outstanding.
But it’s in the very high-priced bags that the deals are the best. Stunning Caiman crocodile bags sell at one boutique in Beverly Hills for $1,600 to $2,000. Blumenthal is closing out the same bags at $450. My favorite: a book-like rectangular bag about 12 inches by seven inches in black with a shoulder chain.
In another room across the entry hall is the women’s belt collection. Check the pricey boutiques, and you’ll find that these belts run from $105 to $159. Hand-cut, some hand-stitched, with findings of 24-karat gold plate over composition metal, they are indeed handsome and, to many, worth the high cost. But at the Italian Handbag Showroom, they are $39 and $59.
Many of us sniff leather products to be sure that we’re not buying a man-made product. “That will tell you if it’s leather, but not if it’s good leather,” Blumenthal said. Sometimes, he says, there may be a slight chemical smell, and that’s not indicative of good quality. The thing to look for, Blumenthal says, is an even thickness, . . . a continuous feel. “It should be the same texture all the way through. The leather in poor-quality bags is often uneven, and the thin spots tend to tear.”
WHERE TO SHOP
What: The Italian Handbag Showroom.
Location: 493 S. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
Cards: MasterCard, Visa.
Call: (310) 271-8591.
