When it comes to accessories, more and more designers are thinking outside the leather box and turning to more exotic hides and skins. The eel skin purse is quickly gaining popularity in the fashion world as a luxurious option to ordinary leather and suede.
While genuine eel skin usually comes from the conger eel, it may surprise you to learn that some is actually taken from the hagfish, which is commonly served as a food fish in Asian countries. If not used to make accessories it would just be discarded, so you can consider your purchase to be fashionable recycling at its finest. This type of skin is in no way magnetized so you can forget the myth about how your credit cards will be rendered useless if kept inside.
Slippery smooth to the touch, this type of skin is preferred because it is easily dyed any color and the natural markings make embellishment largely unnecessary. Since no two skins are identical, every item is truly one of a kind. Most designers also favor eel because it is pliant and easy to work with but still stronger than cow hide. Owners love the fact that the more the item is handled, the softer it will get.
Many designers choose to leave the skin in a natural state while others have experimented with techniques like pleating and pin-tucking to come up with completely new textures.
Purses are available in a number of different styles from coin size to designer clutches and European handbags to over the shoulder models.





