Tinsley Mortimer Knows Her Customer

Last night, we traveled to Upper East Side boutique Samantha Thavasa, a Japanese handbag brand and store, for a sneak peak at Tinsley Mortimer’s Fall 2010 handbag line. We admit we only found out Mortimer’s line for Thavasa existed by watching recently-canceled guilty pleasure reality show High Society. It turns out the Tins has been designing capsule collections for Samantha Thavasa for a few seasons. This one was inspired by 1980s rock bands.

The reason for the ’80s inspiration? Tinsley says she’s a product of the ‘80s and loves ‘80s music. The bags were also a little inspired by lingerie and corsets, she explained, which was a lot more evident than the ‘80s rock band thing, aside from the names of the handbags, which were “Poison,” “Guns N Roses,” “White Snake,” “Metallica,” and “Def Leopard.” We weren’t huge fans of the collection, except for a couple of cute, simple quilted purses with long chain link straps that were, well, Chanel knock-offs in quirky colors.



We were also wondering why, of all brands, Tinsley would be designing for this Japanese handbag line that only has one store in the U.S.? Also, who is Tinsley’s customer? Who is buying these bags? Then, we realized: Japanese people. Apparently, Samantha Thavasa is huge in Japan and American celebrities like Beyonce, Paris Hilton and Victoria Beckham have all starred in ad campaigns for the cutesy upscale handbags. And we all know the Japanese go crazy over pretty, blonde, American socialites, especially those with small faces. We’re actually sort of impressed that Tinsley was able to identify this market for herself.

Beyond that, we’ll let you guys be the judge of Tinsley’s designs. Rock on.