“Hi, Nandhi, I’ve got a package here for you,” my doorman, Frank, told me as I walked into the lobby of my apartment building. This was weird, I wasn’t expecting anything. I hadn’t done online shopping for about a month and my friends just aren’t the type to mail me presents.
I raised an eyebrow as I asked Frank who it was from.
“Well, it says it’s from a Miss Laura Dotolo?” Continue reading
The time is now, the woman is Laura Dotolo, and the company is Clutch Bags NY. As the acting creative director, Laura Dotolo has set a platform for the promotion of the “Made in USA†movement one handbag at a time. As a patriotic American, Laura understands the economical significance of buying locally as opposed to internationally. In her efforts to keep the American economy stimulated, her handbags are made in a factory in the Garment District of New York City. Not only does this provide jobs for her fellow Americans, it also ensures her clients the production quality she feels they deserve.
In working for various fashion publications, Laura found that sometimes the popular trends were not what women really wanted over time. So in 2001 she started Clutch Bags NY. Drawing on her classic New England sensibility and inherited Italian aesthetic, Laura created a line of designer handbags with a clean, classic and utilitarian style. According to Laura, “We take functional ideas and make them our own. Our designs will outlast any trend or fad. I like to think these handbags and purses are something women will use for a lifetime.”
Clutchbags.com offers a range of quality leather American-made handbags and accessories to women around the world. If you were to ask Laura about her dedication to the American-made movement, she would instinctively say that Made in USA is a quality to be proud of that you cannot produce overseas. To spread the word of the Made in USA movement, Laura reaches out to large American companies, like J. Crew, and encourages them to manufacture through her production services in New York City.
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About:
Nandhi is our Clutch NY blogger at large who spends her days observing and her nights reporting.  Imported to NYC from Mozambique, via McGill University, Nandhi dreams someday of becoming a screenwriter.  For the moment, she is keeping the Clutch NY audience up to date with what’s up today in fashion, trends, news and inspiration.
“On to the next one,” says Mother Nature as Memorial Day approaches.
Though it is a day to commemorate and remember the men and women who died while serving in the US Armed forces, Memorial Day is also a day that marks the climatic commencement of Summer. This means that temperatures are rising, as is the amount of skin shown! People are substituting their dress pants and insulated leggings for cuffed jeans and short-shorts!
However, there is also a shift in colors. The sprouting of rich, green plants and the bright yellow of the sun are quickly closing the door to dark and dreary colors. Now you’ll see vivid orange shirts and sea blue skirts make their way down the streets of NYC. For Clutch Bags designer, Laura Dotolo, it’s great to see the inhabitants and visitors of New York really get into the swing of the changing of the seasons, because that change is where she gets a lot of her inspiration from! Continue reading
Lunch Bag in many colors
I use my hands a lot. If I’m telling a story, I like to use my hands to describe the height of the heels I just purchased off Gilt.com.  If I’m dancing and start to feel a bit tired, I move my hands to the beat of the music to create the impression that I’m still dancing with high energy. And if someone asks me a difficult question, I rub my chin or scratch my head because it usually distracts the questioner and buys me more time to think. Needless to say, I’m pretty hands-on. Continue reading
To Feel like a flower.
In light of the last two weeks, which were filled with violence, bombings, explosions, collapses, deaths, traumas; loss, loss of lives, loss of limbs, loss of homes, loss of loved ones, we at Clutch Bags NY can safely say, it is officially spring.
Spring has arrived amongst the turmoil and sadness. Flowers are blooming between surgeries and funerals. This weekend, this day, this moment, death is giving way to life and sadness to rebirth. It is finally time to stop, to look, to smell the glorious flowers that are blooming all around us. Our mortality has been shaken, threatened, challenged and taken. We are reminded again and again, with every tragedy, with every loss or accident, that we, as flesh and blood, are not a permanent fixture on this planet. We exist in time, in moments of beauty and stillness. At times we forget these moments, we forget our flesh, we forget our mortality and we forget to smell the flowers. Continue reading
This week Clutch Bags NY was lucky enough to spend some time talking with April Dinwoodie. Not only is she a Clutch NY client, she is also a woman with more than one career. April is a successful publicity director and the cofounder of a nonprofit organization called Fostering Change for Children.
Keep reading to find out what motivates April to keep moving forward!
April at home with her Clutch NY mail bag
Why do you like living in NYC? New York is full of diversity. Overall, it has a great vibe. I grew up in Rhode Island which is pretty much just one note. Whereas New York is many notes. So I love it for that reason. What inspires you? Young people who have had tremendous hurdles in life, yet they manage to get themselves out of bed everyday and put a smile on their face. There’s nothing more inspiring to me than that. What gives you hope? More or less the same thing. Seeing someone breakthrough. When a person has something really challenging in front of them, watching them overcome it makes me feel hopeful. Continue reading
You know how they say “Dog is man’s best friend”? Well, a woman’s best friend is her accessories. Women turn to accessories for the same reason they turn to their gal pals: for comfort. No matter how good you’re told you look in that little black dress, you won’t feel it until the dress is complimented with some elegant earrings, a nifty necklace, or a handsome handbag. You know, some type of accessory that really pulls the look together. That makes you feel a little more comfortable in going out in that formfitting dress.
If you’re lucky, you have a lot of accessories and the luxury of being picky about which “bestie” to go to for reassurance. However, if you’re like me–always trying to figure out which accessories in your closet are the right ones at the moment to work with your look– remember, there is always room to beef up your network of handbags and jewelry. My advice to you is to invest in a few great accessories that will work throughout the day for you.
What I consider to be my closest friend in my closet is the Clutch black suede lingerie bag. It never lets me down! This Clutch bag is deep, practical, and I can take it anywhere: Continue reading
911 Tragedy remembered in Downtown Manhattan
I was in awe looking up at this light display erected near the site of the fallen towers. It brought me back to the day I witnessed the events first hand while working on set in downtown New York where I live. It was a somber day for us yesterday as we remember the many friends we lost on that tragic day. All of us who still live here in downtown have been impressed with the resilience of our fellow New Yorkers and particularly impressed with the reconstruction of our beloved neighborhood. It reminds me of the strength and fortitude of the American worker as I see what has been rebuilt on the former site of the fallen towers. I decided to start my handbag manufacturing company in the wake of this tragedy in 2001, determined that my handbags designs would always be manufactured here in New York City. I have succeeded in keeping that promised to myself even in the wake of a wave of cheap handbag manufacturing overseas. I still believe that Americans, given an informed choice of quality over cheap goods that don’t last, will choose made in America. My Clutch Bags and Leather purses are warrantied for life and I thank all our clients for their support in purchasing high quality handbags made by hand here in New York City. Made in USA is important to me. God Bless America and all those that support her.
Kisses,
Laura Dotolo
Clutch Bags NY
Cool Moms
Oh, Mothers, Mothers everywhere! Â How we do love you and what you wear!
Oh, yes, how true it is.  I believe this to be the perfect time of year for us at Clutch Bags NY to pay tribute to your mom and give her credit for what she has shared with you in terms of traditions, manners and fashion.  Have you ever thought about where your taste or sense of fashion has sprung from?  Or who has influenced it?  Have you ever thought about why you like to wear, look or touch certain handbags or fabrics?  Quite possibly, your fashion sensibility has been influenced by your mother.  Remember  when you were just a wee one and you were not able to even dress yourself?  Who dressed you?  And then, when you were able to pick out certain items of clothing to put on and decided that you could dress yourself at the age of 3, who was there to guide you?  Hands down, it was most likely your mom.  Whether you were watching her coordinate her shoes to her handbag, or helping her find the right earrings for the dress, you were in the vicinity to be influenced by her taste and her style.
Now, some of you I am sure are cringing, thinking that you cannot possibly have been influenced by your mom’s polyester pantsuits or yellow go-go boots. Â Continue reading
White is not just a color. It’s an attitude.  Take a look, open your eyes.  White is making its appearance in the form of hip and cool.  Yeh!  The color white has finally arrived!  It has taken quite a few years in the fashion journey for white to creep  down to this level;  the no frills street level that is.  Sure, white is nice.  It is pure. It is sweet. It is bridal, first communion,  innocence, purity  and cleanliness.  It is also bright, fresh, and blinding.  It is so very  healing and germ free.  Let’s face it,  it is the king of all neutrals. Continue reading
