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When it comes to handbags, it doesn’t get more luxurious than alligator—or does it? By now, you might be familiar with Jason Stalvey’s exotic-skin bags, which have become a favorite of It girls like Gigi Hadid and Kaia Gerber. In genuine alligator, lizard, ostrich, and python, they range from bite-size beauty cases (starting at $4,800) to duffels (which go for upwards of $25,000). Accessible? The opposite. Stalvey isn’t pretending these are “affordable” or democratic bags, nor is he concerned with reaching every woman; vegans, you won’t find anything faux here. He’s more interested in shaking up the luxury market with rare, one-of-a-kind bags with a streetwise edge that speak to girls whose mothers probably shopped at Hermès.
Like Hermès and other high-end leather brands, Stalvey’s bags are handmade, expensive, and very rare. But what sets them apart is Stalvey’s use of 21st-century technology. His latest development is a range of 24-karat gold bags, which are created using a futuristic-sounding “embedding” process: The skins aren’t foiled or painted, but are actually pressed with real gold particles. “After two years of various failed dyes and techniques, we never imagined the process would lead us to actually embedding gold into alligator skins,” Stalvey tells Vogue. “It’s a matter of taking gold in its solid state and using a high-energy beam of electrons in a vacuum chamber to create a gas. Once the gold gas cools and returns to a solid state, the particles are then embedded into the skins.”
It’s the first time gold has been embedded into exotic skin, and, as you can imagine, the finished products are hugely expensive. There’s a slim clutch for $26,000, a chain-strap cross-body for $50,000, and a larger top-handle bag for $100,000. The market exists, though; that bag became the most expensive one ever sold at Harrods last week when the collection launched in London. They’ll be available in the U.S. on Moda Operandi starting November 1. We’d argue the alligator pillow (priced at $22,500) and teddy bear (which is going for $32,000) might be the most outrageous purchases—the large bag is six figures, but at least it’s functional!
The pieces also qualify as actual investments. Each one will come with a certificate of the gold’s authenticity and its ethical sourcing, just like a watch or necklace would. In fact, the gold content is so high that each piece is actually considered a “24-karat article,” a designation typically reserved for jewelry. “All of our products are made by hand, from the hardware to the finished good, and by working with skins, each one is also one-of-a-kind with its own personality,” Stalvey says. “With the gold skins, it’s taking it a step furthering and marrying one of the most coveted leathers with fine jewelry.”
For more information and to shop the “regular” range, visit stalvey.com.