// LA BELLE ET LA BêTE \\

One To Watch: The "La belle et la bête" clutch bag

If you haven't heard of or seen an 'Olympia Le Tan' bag as of yet, I have a feeling that after seeing Clémence Poesy donning one at the latest Harry Potter premier might have put it well & truly under the fashion worlds radar. Carrying what looks at first glimpse like a “La Belle et la Bête” (Beauty and the Beast) book is actually a clutch by Olympia Le Tan. So I thought it would be nice to give you a brief history lesson behind this very clever women & her brilliant designs.

Olympia Le Tan launched her collection of minaudières (small ornamental case for a woman's cosmetics, jewelry, or personal items that is often carried as a handbag) and bags which wear the covers of first 

edition novels, stolen from the library of her esthete and artistic father, Pierre Le-Tan. These minaudières 

are lined in a liberty pattern and crafted with delicacy, as the tag says, "Made in Paris with Love.” This 

season she's supposedly inspired by Paris, the 1940's, surrealism, old book covers of books that were turned into great movies. The mini clutches are like surrealist little evening boxes on which she play with the words.