Alex + Chloe are popping up a pop up store tomorrow in Chinatown at the New High (M)art and i just noticed their new Black Diamonds collection… particularly the Anneau Solitaire - Diamant Inverse. I have had a bizarre fascination with inverted diamonds ever since Tobias Wong’s Ultimate Reverse Setting Ring. Also shown here are the Sphere Noir Diamant Inverse and Sphere Diamant Inverse, which remind me of mini oxidized canon balls… canon balls coming at you with the point of a diamond. Inverted diamonds, an interesting twist on a classic symbol of luxury, and also the ultimate weapon with used with a point? See more images and info on the opening after the jump!

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Click the images to find out more! What’s hot over at NotCouture this week? A mix of winter sales and spring fashions around the corner… lots of accessorizing and outerwear!

With Valentine’s Day around the corner ~ there are a lot of options out there to get romantic ~ from getaways to roses to chocolates, etc. Here’s a “deluxe intimacy kit” from Kiki De Montparnasse over at Red Envelope, which normally wouldn’t have grabbed me, but the handcuff print on the silk restraints were too fun (see close ups of the rest of the contents of this kit after the jump!). I’d love to see this pattern use as a men’s tie, the interior of a laptop case, in other unexpected contexts of things that “tie us down”?

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Part of me lives for the neverending hunt for the *perfect* bag… well, perhaps a perfect bag for each and every situation. Anyhow, everyone has their quest, and that seems to be mine. That being said, this new grey Miu Miu bag in the Kirsten Dunst ads is my latest lust object. And while bag hunting and finding this one, i also got sucked into the whole ad campaign imagery for Miu Miu’s spring 2008 with Kirsten Dunst ~ fun photography, loving the eerie red floors and ominously surreal look, and while i feel silly saying every time i see her i still think of Interview With A Vampire ~ she certainly has that pale look about her here! See the whole campaign after the jump.

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Being a sucker for seemingly useful multipurpose designs… i’m strangely drawn to these leather wrap bracelets from A.P.C.’s spring 08 collection. This “doubled centimitre bracelet” is 100% leather with a small metal buckle and a centimitre scale embossed on the outside and ‘A.P.C / WONDERWALL’ on the inside. (NotCouture #1372)Now if only they’d do one in inches as well?

Sub-Studio just featured these incredible Lima 7192 glass jewelry pieces, and i’m smitten by the Lush Ring VI-2. Something about the precious glass in such playfully organic shapes ~ so clear it’s practically invisible, yet you can’t take your eyes off it. See more enticing close-ups after the jump!

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Click the images to see the posts! A week in review for NotCouture, here are some of the most popular…

Browsing Oh Joy, i noticed Wickle and their simple, pretty line of perfumes… while i have no idea what their scents are like, the packaging is sweet, in that old fashioned girly feeling way. Fig & Mace sure sounds like a strange one though… their usual come in scents like Muskmallow, Periwinkle, and Scented Tea Leaf with various limited edition packaging - The limited edition line with Katie Brinsley features a delicate chain with porcelain objects hanging from them and Takako Copeland editions come with pure silver silhouette pendants.

Wow. Yay for emails with new products that blow my mind as i wake up. Just im-ed these images over to Shade Elaine (aka Linhchi our NotCouture/scissor loving editor) and the response is a definite “OMG I WANT IT”. Gogo of Toy-Me just gave me a sneak peek at one of the latest pieces from their upcoming collection, and knowing our thing for scissors (remember our sticker collection?)… is taunting us with this incredible silver scissor cuff bracelet, that can be worn two ways! Incredible that it actually opens, now the real question is: can it actually cut? I think we need two each, one for each wrist! More close ups below! And the full collections will be presented at Pitti Uomo next week.

Here’s the teaser: “Paris designer Thomas Jaillot together with Marco De Michelis will introduce a Silver Scissor that wraps around your wrist and mixes with paper art transformations into silver, Origami earings and a Paper Windmill charm and earing.”

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Click any of the 100 tiny images to find out more! Even though NotCouture has been up for only a few months ~ i can’t believe we only launched it back in aug! As you can see, as a collective, all of us NotCouture readers sure do seem to love our coats, shoes, and bags…

So we’ve been through quite a few reusable shopping bags here on NOTCOT, and now when i find new unique ones, i just can’t seem to help myself. Latest interesting simplistic luxury variations come from Porter that was featured on HighSnobiety. Their replacement for the standard plastic bag-The Porter x Club King Shopping Bag in nylon (and it seems to have nylon lining layer as well, looks much like a baggu with flaps to secure things) and there is The Porter Grocery Tote replacing your paper bags, only this one is decked out in leather and cotton! And its as brown as your paper, but with a sky blue interior. Honestly i can’t believe this is the 14th reusable shopping bag post… thanks dan implementing tagging and forcing me to start tagging things i can actually know that now… although of the nearly 2000 notcot.com posts, i’ve only tagged everything from 2007 so far, so 2 years to go when i have free time!

Brains + Shiny + Puma Urban Mobility + instant gallery thanks to the Serpentine for $1,400? This new collaborative Reality Bag project looks great. “The Reality Bag is an exciting new product, adapted from the PUMA Urban Mobility Edition Bag, which launched last season. The Reality Bag is designed to reflect the world inside and out through a clever use of innovative materials and design detail. To develop the concept of this original accessory, the Serpentine Gallery invited artist John Armleder to create its look and feel. Armleder also created the concept of the content and invited young artists to create artworks to go inside each of the 1000 Reality Bags. This makes The Reality Bag an original, multiple artwork containing original pieces by the artist himself and by invitees including John Trembley and Philippe Decreuzat. Many other artists will contribute books, DVDs, or anthologies, as Armleder plays with the idea of the bag as a portable gallery. The result is a truly individual work of art.”

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I’ve been a big fan of diesel for years now ~ and honestly as much as i liked their clothes, i’ve always LOVED their branding, packaging, graphics/interaction design! But what really blew me away was how horrendous their Fuel For Life customization ended up being. I must admit i’m relieved to see that there are *some* decent packaging/product offerings in this space that aren’t embarrassing… Before i get into this sweet new limited edition ~ i’ve updated the Fuel For Life Customization post with images of the finished product… its more expensive AND uglier than i ever imagined. I had assumed that the mediocre flash imagery would be made up for by the usual diesel packaging/product quality, but instead the result is something i would probably be accused of peddling a bad fake and slapped for if i tried to sell it on ebay or craigslist.

Anyhow, excited to see that they came out with some edgy fun limited editions this season! The limited edition black lacquered box is beautiful and the packaging/bracelet idea with refillable minis is adorable for a gift, but doesn’t it seem redundant to have a clasp when it already opens where the bottle goes? And can’t you think of many different things you could put in that? The main bottles are a bit overly bling’d out for me, but playful and giftworthy none the less.

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On more affordable designer options on green friendly reusable shopping bag options… Beau Soleil has stepped in with their new Beau Bag. “A stylish grocery sack! Price is affordable to entice people to help the environment without shelling out a lot of cash.” It is $44 at ShopBop, $40 at Beau Soleil, and $25 (shipping in Jan) at El Sueño Verde. The typography was nice and clean on this one, and its great that there are snap pockets on all sides (including inside!) for all those random magazines, packs of gum, keys, etc! ~ see below for closeups.

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For some reason, these new Tank Theory tee illustration graphics have really grabbed me tonight while i was browsing 80’s Purple: I’m not a violent person, Revolution! (close up below of the black/gold going across the back as well), Survivor!… and there is also the Comrade tee below, with the gun behind her back… and on exciting Tank Theory news, i just noticed the really sweet Dungeons buckle that we’ve gushed about before is back in stock (images below to remind you which one)!

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