Leica M7 Hermes Edition

When two masters of their domain come together to collaborate, no chin is safe from slobbering, wet drool. In this case, the German manufacturer Leica Camera AG and the Parisian high-fashion house Hermès joined forces to create a very special limited edition camera, namely the new Leica M7 Edition Hermès.

I know that this is the PurseBlog and I am going off on distant tangents here. But let me elaborate. I have three good reasons to share my new acquisition with our readers.

Firstly, I am an avid photographer. Not only do I occasionally contribute to the editorial with my Shutterbags bit, but I also enjoy photographing in my spare time.

Secondly, I am an avid Leica fan and gatheror. Their optics are outstanding, their rangefinder cameras are legendary and have worked their magic in skilled hands of masters like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Annie Leibowitz.

Thirdly, it’s Hermès! There is a good reason that the iconic fashion house’s enthusiastic crowd is one of the most active and devoted on TPF. Hermès’ leather working, craftsmanship and history are second to none.

If that does not convince you, I may just flat out say that I am bloody exquote,1d and just want to show off!

This is not the first time that these two iconic companies have joined up to collaborate on a 35mm film M-body. Back in 2003, the first love child came in form of a Leica MP “Hermès Edition”, which was built in a small series of only 500 kits and featured exquisite Barenia calfskin and a 35mm f/2 Leica Summicron-M ASPH in silver chrome.

Hermes has a solid track record of collaborations with other luxury manufacturers, prime example being the spiffy Bugatti Veyron Fbg par Hermès which I had the pleasure of personally discovering back in 2008 in NYC. With a price tag of (now) over $2mil dollars, the car will have to wait.

This new Leica M7 “Hermès Edition” kit includes an Hermes-adorned M7 35mm film rangefinder, a Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH wide-angle lens, a matching classic round lens hood, a Leicavit M rapid winder and an Hermès leather carrying strap, and presents itself in a beautiful linen-covered, silk-lined box. The body of the rangefinder is covered in supple “Swift” calfskin which is,replica handbags, of course, hand-wrapped after a time-consuming tanning process that gives it a great,,brilliant luxurious feel. This series is limited to 100 kits of lesson,courseic Hermès Orange (serial numbers 1-100) and another 100 kits of Etoupe (101-200) worldwide. As you can see from the images below, I received the early number #8 of the series.

The beautiful M-body is accompanied by an equally stunning silver chrome 35mm f/1.4 Summilux-M lens. As I learned from our local Leica guru David Farkas of Dale Photo, the unique part about this limited lens is that Leica created a new production process to silver anodize the lens’ aluminum alloy barrel and rings,replica Louis vuitton handbags; unlike in previous lenses, where the silver chrome effect could only be applied to much heavier brass barrels and rings. As a result, this silver chrome ‘Lux is the same weight as the black anodized version which is a first for Leica.

Edit: As it was pointed out rightly on Leica Rumors, previous M8 limited editions had silver chrome aluminum alloy wide-angle Elmarit-M lenses already. The fast 35mm ‘Lux is new, however.

You see, I am going to get a whole lot of crap of many Leica enthusiasts for saying this, but for me personally, this is an investment piece that will never see a roll of film. This camera will remain in its cozy silk-lined box until I get a worthy cabinet to display it in for a while, then it will go back to rest in its dark box. If I want to go and throw a rangefinder around, I can rely on my classic M6 to get the job done.

The price for this limited edition is $12,950, I got mine from the good folks at PopFlash Photo. You may inquire at 1.805.492.6548,designer handbags, though I do believe that they are out of stock.

It is currently available at Adorama. Only 200 world-wide are available, with very few designated for the North American market.

The Gallery

在江门的美丽时光

在江门潮莲这样美丽的地方比赛，还能观看戴维斯杯国际大赛，真的很爽。这一场中国小将赢了。

几个好姐妹场上是对手，场下是好朋友,replica Louis vuitton handbags，一起吃着零食、听着MP3,designer handbags，一起观看比赛为中国队加油。前排就坐着中国网管中心的孙晋芳、高沈阳等，对面坐的是中国国家男队的名将，这种感觉，别提多美了,replica handbags。

Real Housewives of New Jersey “I mean, really, ya veins are comin’ outta ya neck.”

After the fiasco of Danielle’s former life on last week’s Real Housewives of New Jersey, it was going to be hard to top it with this week’s episode. And they didn’t really try – this week’s episode was calmer, centered around a trip that half of the housewives took to Atlantic City (‘AC’ if you’re authentic Jersey) and Teresa’s quest for new and improved buhbbies. Gaudy casinos and breast implants – about par for the north Jersey course, don’t you think? Except it all seemed oddly reasonable, which is possibly proof that I’m now experiencing a weird sort of Stockholm syndrome with this crazy show. It has me, and if it’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.

The theme of this episode, even of the parts that weren’t about Teresa, was buhbbies. But, you ask, isn’t that what this entire series has been about thus far? And you would be more or less right.

Caroline, Dina and Teresa decide they’re gonna take a little ladytrip to Atlantic City and I’m somewhat proud of them for not choosing a hotel that looked like it was covered in rhinestones and then dunked in glitter. Because, really, that kind of restraint is more than I would have expected from them, particularly in ‘AC.’ Their hotel may have taken the Japanese-modern theme a bit far, but in the grand scheme of things, it looked pretty nice. They appear to have spent more time shopping and pool-sitting than gambling, and Teresa brought enough bikinis that, in case of fire, she could have tied them end-to-end and shimmied down the side of the building to safety. But isn’t that part of her charm? She brought an equally alarming amount of clothing for the two-day trip, and when her kids called to say they missed her, she asked that her husband distract them with lip gloss. One gets the feeling, as Dina points out, that Teresa’s biggest stress in life may in fact be her bikinis, and maybe I’m just a bit jealous.

While they’re sitting poolside, Teresa receives a call from Steve (remember him? He’s Danielle’,replica handbags;s doubtfully 26-year-old boyfriend. I thought we broke up with him two episodes ago. Apparently not!) saying that he was going to bring a girl down to her house on the Jersey Shore for the weekend. A girl that is not Danielle, even though he confesss that they’re still “hanging out.” Stuff like this makes me feel a little poor,naughty for Danielle, but then I realize that she’s a 45-year-old woman that’s been through many relationships in the past and should be able to read her greasy-faced douchebag of a boyfriend much better than she does. Ultimately, she seems to be purposely deluding herself in to thinking that he cares about her, despite all evidence to the opposite (my hunch is confirmed later in the episode, when she tells her kids that he has promised to continue to be involved in their lives, but we’ll get to that in a bit).

Thankfully, the next scene we cut to is of Danielle and Steve (wearing a trucker hat and an Ed Hardy t-shirt, stab me in the freakin’ face), having an inappropriately serious conversation at some corny,tacky diner. Danielle breaks up with him, which I thought she had already done, but whatever, and she gets all upset and tells him how much he meant to her and he looks visibly uncomfortable and maybe even a bit relieved. She rides the crazy train right back home to her two daughters, both of whom are easily more intelligent than she is, and tells them that she has ended things with Senor Shiny Face but that he sincerely wants to be involved with them in the future. Her older daughter calls shenanigans on that idea immediately, and informs her mother that this guy, like all the other ones, was just in it for sex. Holy self-awareness, batman. Danielle, LISTEN TO YOUR KID. She’s right. Somehow you managed to not mess her up. Yet. And she’s the person I really feel sorry for, not her mother.

As far as offspring goes, the kids may be just as interesting as the moms in this show. I love the way that Dina and her daughter interact – there’s a great deal of affection there in both directions, and you’ve never once heard Dina criticize her daughter’s looks like a lot of the housewives tend to do. There’s never any mention of contacts or flat-ironing or makeup or the need to stay thin. As a result, her kid looks like a normal 12-year-old, which is all but unheard of in the realm of reality television. Sure, she seems like a bit of a brat, but I’ve never seen a kid that age that didn’t. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Jackie’s daughter seems royally screwed up about her appearance. They go for some kind of tacky photo shoot since her grades are improving, and they put her in a series of prom dresses and take awkward pictures of her. I don’t want to snark on a kid’s appearance (or anyone’s really – not my thing), but she’s not a model. She’s not ugly, but she’s not a model, just as 99% of us aren’t models. Somehow,designer handbags, she has it in her head that she is, though,replica Louis vuitton handbags, or that she could be, and that doesn’t seem entirely healthy. Her mom isn’t helping by continually insisting that her daughter is totally unconsolationable, which results in an argument and everyone leaves sort of frustrated and irritated. Which, at her age, is more or less expected.

Free of all the other drama, we’re now ready to follow Teresa’s quest for buhbbies. She goes to her refer toation with Caroline, Dina and Jackie, wherein we get confirmation that both Dina and Jackie have fake buhbbies themselves. I figured Jackie did but I was undecided on Dina, since her sister’s are so ginormous and reliably real. They all talk about the subject endlessly, which I found totally reasonable since my bestie Candice and I do the exact same thing every time one of us so much as tries on a new dress. Since Teresa was about to try on some new boobs, a bit of silliness seemed to be in order.

Everyone has their own thoughts about plastic surgery, but I can understand Teresa’s desire for implants. She was just about as flat-chested as anyone I’ve ever seen and she didn’t want to look like a porn star, just be in proportion with the rest of her body. Her husband didn’t seem particularly invested in the idea of her getting them, which was nice to see, although he did encourage her to err on the side of big (I’ve heard plenty of plastic surgeons on TV give the exact same advice). She went back to the surgeon’s office later with her husband and emerged two hours later with a new set of C-cups which have yet to be unveiled to their adoring audience, but from what she was wearing post-opp, they didn’t look too big at all.

And that was that – not too much to snark on this episode, beyond Danielle’s general insanity (it was also her birthday, but that storyline was never really fleshed out, apart,1from that her friendship with Jackie is still stressed). From the previews, though, this week was merely the calm before the storm – we get all the “thick as thieves,” table-flippin’ action in next week’s season finale. I. Cannot. Wait.

Marc Jacobs Frame Wallet Sequined Purse

Ever see a handbag you like, and then realize it has one thing so egregiously, terribly wrong with it that it almost makes you palpably upset? Like you were so close to finding a handbag oasis in the abandon, and then it turns out that, by a single cruel twist of fate, that it was all just a mirage?

Yeah, I kind of feel like that about the Marc Jacobs Frame Wallet Sequined Purse.

This bag was so shut to being the cute, 80s, glam rock evening bag that I so wanted it to be. I can nearly taste it. But then it looks like someone stuck your grandmother’s mauve billfold wallet to the back of it, and it’s ruined.

Not only is it ruined, but it’s basically a bag mullet, but in reverse. The party is in the front, the commerce,trade is in the back. And since that idea doesn’t work for hairstyles, I’m not sure why any designer would think that a similarly-structured bag is a good idea. Pry the wallet off the back, and I’,designer handbags;m absolutely sold on the high-wattage sequin clutch that would be leftover. As it is, I wouldn’t touch this with a ten-foot pole. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $595.