Mary-Kate, Ashley Olsen's New Handbag Line: You Can't Afford One
Olsens Team with Sister Lizzie on New Barney's Venture
Fashion magnates Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have teamed up with their younger sister, actress Lizzie, to launch a new line of luxury handbags for their fashion label The Row. What reporters learned at Wednesday night's cocktail party celebrating the Olsens' new collection for Barneys? Their most coveted new bag could set you back about a year's salary.
StyleCaster.com reports that at Wednesday night's "intimate" cocktail party inside Barneys in Manhattan, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen stayed away from reporters, posing only briefly with their new collaborator/sister, 22-year-old indie-actress sister Lizzie, for photographers.
But Barneys execs like Creative Director at Large Simon Doonan were positioned prominently to dish on the girls' new line. Why does the fashion world rave about what the Olsens bring to the counter? Doonan revealed why their approach works so ridiculously well: "Mary-Kate and Ashley, they make the chicest clothes on earth," he said. "And their aesthetic is very, very sophisticated and very hip ... That is amazing for girls their age. A lot of people in the design world, they don't really hit their stride until they're in their 30s or 40s, some of the top performers like Alber [Elbaz] just turned 50. But they're young girls in their 20s and they have an incredibly evolved aesthetic."
Read: Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen: Officially Billionaires
Guess that "aesthetic" is expensive. The Row's new bags run between $4,700 to -- sit down -- $39,000. The nine new bags feature an array of sizes and shapes (from a small rectangular one to a large messenger) and materials as basic as leather and metal and as exotic (and PETA-p.o.'ing) as alligator, lizard and ostrich skin. Barneys Fashion Director Amanda Brooks says the Olsen's price point is easily justified because while the looks may be slightly inaccessible, they'll never go out of style: "I think they're bags you can buy and you carry season after season if you want to be deluxe," Brooks said. "And at the same time they're drool-inducing but they're not something you get sick of quickly."
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And as the 25-year-old Olsen twins have been building their showbiz and fashion franchise since they were nine months old, it's clear consumers don't grow sick of them quickly either.


