it's all about the shoes...

ladies love shoes. men love nice shoes on ladies. good shoes make life worth living, especially in nyc. hayden-harnett <3's shoes. 211 franklin street is shoeville, with no exiles.

ohmydog...everyone at hh is 100% freakily obsessed with shoes, me included. every time the ups guy drops by, 8 out of 10 times, there's a fresh pair of shoes being delivered to some lucky lady who's hoping that "this is the pair"...the magic pair that are super-stylish, comfortable, well-made, and not a total rent buster. the elusive footwear "one".

so, what to do about this all-encompassing problem? bags we have. check. awesome bags for both fashion and travel. apparel we have. check. great dresses and outerwear that we all love and help us refrain from nudity.

shoes were the only thing missing from the mix. time to design some shoes, obviously. so i did. i sat down on saturday, 4/27 and started sketching exactly what i was looking for. style. comfort. personality. crafty leather love. wearability with an edge. kicks with style and soul. interesting to look at. easy to love.

what came of the saturday sketch session? a collection of shoes for hayden-harnett that will launch for spring 2009. nine styles that range from a slide to a zippered cuff boot that can be worn over the knee. all in our signature soft, natural leathers we use on the handbags. seven weeks later, we have a fully sampled line and we're sending out linesheets.

we will be introducing our shoes to buyers during the collections at WSA in the venetian hotel at the end of july. super. hurrah! all the hh ladies love the shoes and i'm now testing out the first pair of personals that i ordered for myself, the iskia link wedge. they float around my foot. they are easy to wear with everything. they are badass and woven with a covered leather wedge heel. they rock and they roll. even ben likes them.

further sneak peeks of hayden-harnett shoes to come.
--toni

Spotted in Hayden-Harnett: Kim Stolz

Kim Stolz of America's Next Top Model, Veronica Mars & more was spotted on MTV's TRL wearing our Cara Pullover Coverup.

Viva Tropicalia! Spring/Summer 2008 Lookbook Movie

rhumba, samba, frevo. hayden-harnett's s/s08 collection is deeply inspired by a love for the passionate arts and culture of 60's brazil. vivid color, bold shapes, and hand-crafted detailing reflect the cultural flashpoint of tropicalismo. so, put on some caetano veloso or os mutatnes on the hi-fi, kick back and watch the surf roll in. remember, it is forbidden to forbid. from corcovado to sao paulo, we hope there's something perfeito for the artisan in you. view the catalog

--Toni

Sighted: Mia Maestro & her Mosaique Hobo

We're not generally a fan of the paparazzi, but we were giddy when super-cute Mia Maestro was spotted on a cool day at the beach down in South America with our Mosaique Hobo.

Spring is in the Air

Today we had a tantalizing hint of the spring to come, as temperatures rose into the positively balmy 40s here in Brooklyn, and the sun shone down on rivulets of melting snow, and we shed our jackets temporarily. We only got to enjoy the beautiful weather fleetingly, as we ran our separate ways from one place to another. We are as busy as bees at Hayden-Harnett. You'll notice in the past few months we haven't been updating our photojournals or posting much on our blog.

You will notice some changes, however, if you glance around our website :-) Our beautiful new spring collection of handbags is launched, with terrific new styles - the Suki Ladybag and Barnard Crossbody pre-eminent among them. We've also launched the Paule Marrot Editions by Hayden-Harnett collection, featuring the modern yet timeless print designs of Alsatian artist Paule Marrot. We would be remiss if we didn't mention our skinny belts riffing off our signature handbag styles and bringing in some charm of their own.

These days anomolous weather is both more frequent, and more jarring, as increased awareness about the dangers of human propelled climate change puts us all on edge about the future. That's why we launched the "Friends of Al" tote last month - to raise awareness about global warming, and to actually do something about it. We've already raised thousands of dollars and planted over fifteen-hundred trees, and made countless new friends.

Meanwhile, Toni has been hard at work designing our Fall 2007 collection. We've just set up our showroom with the new collection, which is our best yet! The colors are staggeringly beautiful, and too achingly perfect to describe, and we've developed some new custom hardware elements we're all longing to start carrying. And just wait until you look inside...

Oh - have you noticed? We've taken "handbags + accessories" our of the website logo, and added a new button - "apparel". That's right. We've just launched our first ready-to-wear collection, designed by the fantabulous Sonia A. We have trendy A-line dresses, stunning short and long jackets, a spring parka to die for, and countless other items. Keep checking back as we continue to refine the apparel section of the website. And we're pretty excited, because we've just had the apparel featured in Elle Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and now Daily Candy!

Worried about ordering from the web? Don't - we've got a 15 day easy return policy, and we're sure you won't want to send it back. But maybe you really just want to see it in person and get to try it on? You're in luck, because we're in the middle of opening our very first store, in Greenpoint! Toni is ordering wallpaper samples, and Ben is supervising the construction, and we should be open in just a few more weeks. Thanks for checking in, and keep in touch. H-H.

Spring '07: Just Around the Corner!

we're working away on getting the spring 2007 collection finished up and ready to show for september market. we have SO MANY great new bags and items coming...i can't wait until we get the sampling finished up.

new news: for spring'07, we're launching a fabulous (but casual) line of apparel. most of the dresses are very lightweight jersey. the main idea being that they travel and wear so well. seriously, you can roll our clothing up so small and throw it into your bag. change into them at the end of the day, and voila, you're ready to hit the town! i really think our fans are going to love the new line.

we're also launching belts for SP07...we have one style, the HARNESS belt, which will be available for autumn/winter'06. comes in whiskey, malachite, and vintage black.

hayden-harnett has asked two amazing new designers to join us (great friends of ours)...we're growing and couldn't have found more talented people to join our design team. sonia agostino, our apparel design director, who thoroughly kicks cold corporate design's ass. also, hanging out in our bklyn offices...madeleine (mimi) ayres, an incredibly talented graphic designer and artist. sonia is from NJ, and mimi is from argentina.

SPRING 2007 INSPIRATION:

MARK ROTHKO (illustrative work and color field)
BIBA
OSSIE CLARK
PARIS in the 60's (superb book...great for mood and silhouette)
EQUESTRIAN TACK & HARDWARE
BRIGHT ENAMELS
(slick finish/handmade and modern handcraft feeling)
TACKY 80's geometric plastic jewelry in vivid colors
(LOVE how hard they tried...)

MICROSCOPIC FOCUS on materials and unique usage/effects

UNEXPECTED ways of combining color/pattern that feel fresh and vivid or, on the oppostie scale, nearly invisible (black is out of the picture after the A/W06 goth aftermath)

MIX of color and pattern grounded with neutrals
CLASSIC silhouettes with a large nod to vintage late 50's early 60's...time to clean up our acts and "be good" as we prepare for unsteady govt, global warming, and uncertain economy.

BOLD DIRECTNESS and romantic escapism/capriciousness will be the two opposing moods that reflect our current schizo world psychology.

Above all else, a vintage and handworked feeling with modern sensibilities
of function and universal style...any woman can find pieces she loves and can work into her wardrobe.

more later ... over and out!
cross posted on Hayden-Harnett's myspace

Mena Suvari <3's Hayden-Harnett

We were thrilled to see American Beauty's Mena Suvari sporting our Mosa Beaded Hobo in InStyle magazine. Rumor has it (no pun intended) she has a few other Hayden-Harnett items, but we're not talking.

Bag-O-Scope

Having trouble deciding on a bag? Ever wonder what the stars have to say about what handbag you should carry? Ponder no further. Hayden-Harnett has done the work for you. We've pulled down the old astrological tomes off the top shelf, blown off the dust and pored over charts and numbers. We've tracked the constellations in the sky, and noticed a lot of them actually seem to be carrying handbags. Don't delay, enter your birthdate in our cosmological calculator, and find out which bags are right for you, today! Bag-O-Scope. Illustrated by Irit Baniel.

Seeing Red: Coral in History

Last fall the more fashion-forward were seeing a certain red on the runways for this spring, and to our eyes that red was coral. This color is named, of course, for the underwater animal/colony that so typifies it and is found throughout the Mediterranean. In his Natural History (77 AD), Pliny the Elder describes the first use of coral as decoration, by the Celts who used it to decorate their swords, shield, and helmets. Their coral, collected from the Gallic Gulf and near the Aeolian Islands off Sicily was the best, the reddest and most branched, and when it was learned that in India red coral was esteemed to have mystical powers, it quickly became a scarce commodity. According to Pliny, in India the coral was thought to ward off danger, and branches were hung around the necksround the necks of infants. Sometime in the intervening years, the Celts took up this practice, followed by the Italians, among whom it is popular today to hang a carved horn or branch of coral dangling over the chest. Lately, the corno as it is called has found its use in fashion less to ward off the evil eye than to draw in the eye. Now, this spring and summer, we hope everybody will be seeing red. See more coral from Hayden-Harnett.

On the Runway

Kevin Johnn of Project Runway augmented his debut Spring collection at New York's fashion week with our Havana Hobo in white. VIP guests to the show were also treated to a gift of our Celina cuff bracelets. Take a look at us unpacking our accessories at the show in Elle Magazine.