Profile

Located on one of Nolita’s swankiest shopping blocks, Jamin Puech specializes in the material art of the one-of-a-kind handbag. The jewel-box boutique is outfitted with a few shabby-chic couches and antique-style display cases, but the real stars here are Benoit Jamin and Isabelle Puech’s bags. Every year, the Parisian couple designs two collections of around eighty-five intricately crafted, limited-edition handbags, each one handmade, unusual and completely unique. Best known for bohemian flair and eclectic beadwork, the bags range from tiny evening numbers fit for stowing little more than a cell phone and a lipstick to full-size satchels and roomy shoulder bags. Limited production means only a small number of each style: eager devotees scramble for first picks in February and September, when seasonal offerings are shipped over from Paris, and as the months pass, the store’s inventory rapidly diminishes. Longtime favorites of fashion editors, Bergdorf buyers, and fashion god Karl Lagerfeld, who has commissioned bags for the Chanel runway, Jamin Puech bags appear frequently in the high-end glossies—though the featured pieces are almost certainly sold out on the shelves by the time the issue hits the stands. — Carolyn Murnick

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The designers also offer a small rotating assortment of accessories each season, like feather boas, scarves, and leather necklaces in winter and linen caftan dresses and flat sandals in summer.