Etienne Aigner Fall 2012

Given that these days a good chunk of Fashion Week invites come via email, it was all the more impressive that Etienne Aigner’s Fall 2012 invite was a hand-delivered hi-tech digital frame featuring a slideshow. To boot, the show was held at the historic Morgan Library and had something very few other presentations have – food and cocktails (needless to say the crowd was all smiles). I spoke with the President at the presentation and he told me that after going dark for a few months, Aigner is excited to make a big push in the U.S. market and hopes to be in a number of department stores in the coming months.

While the brand is still relatively under-the-radar stateside, Etienne Aigner has long been well regarded in Europe as a go-to for handbags. The stand-outs in the Fall 2012 collection however were the jewelry pieces (jewelry was launched in 2005 and is affordably priced at $35-$225). The collection included a number of versatile day-to-night pieces, each of which were named after New York City streets (think Mercer, Prince). Of particular note was a monochrome tassel necklace that will be available in a few color iterations and bangles subtly inscribed with the brand’s logo.

As for the handbags, each is named after a New York heiress (think Whitney, Hutton) and prices  will similarly be on the affordable side with 75% of the bags retailing for under $300 when they hit stores.