What it is: Rocco e Dante Katie Bag in navy blue

Designer’s Site: Rocco e Dante

Where I got it: Editor’s Closet

Editor’s Closet  is an online designer boutique and participation in their private sales is by invitation only. An invitation for free membership is included in the link above, simply follow it to create an account and gain access to their private sales, courtesy of Style & Angst.

Retail Price: $575

What I Think: I LOVED this bag!  I also returned this bag.  It wasn’t easy but it had to be done.  The leather on this bag is absolutely gorgeous, the bag is huge, and the color is divine. The design?  Not so much.  The straps that wrap around the bag are supposed to attach to the front with magnets.  Unfortunately, the magnets are not very strong, and if you open the bag wide enough to put the least amount of pressure on them, they pop right off.  Even worse, the strap on the right-hand side of the bag I received was cut about a half inch longer than the strap on the other side.  This caused the right-hand strap to sit at an odd angle, putting enough stress on the magnet to make it pop off all by itself.  The whole strap thing is a major design flaw.  The straps serve no purpose other than an aesthetic one,  and if they didn’t pop off by themselves you would have to go through the motions of detaching and reattaching both of them them every time you wanted to open the bag more than a few inches.  That’s too much work for me.  I’m not entirely convinced that all this style Katie Bags have this magnet issue (and this is the first time I have ever returned an item to Editor’s Closet).  Check out You are Cordially Invited for all the details! I’ll tell you what though, if it weren’t for the strap issue, this bag would have been worth every penny of even Rocco e Dante’s retail price, it’s that gorgeous! [Ed’s Note: I ended up scoring another Rocco e Dante bag in the same gorgeous leather in a fold over clutch style… stay tuned for the review!)

Rocco e Dante bags can be a real challenge to find at any sort of discount, but you might get lucky at CoutureCandy

Lamarthe ANDALOUSE