A sign of good taste

Designer pairs ice cream flavors, handbags

? Ice cream at the beach is one of the greatest pleasures of the summer. Few people, though, indulge in such a high-calorie treat everyday.

But accessories designer Kate Spade found a way to get her daily dose of chocolate chocolate chip.

These new ice-cream tote bags by Kate Spade were inspired by Haagen-Dazs' T-shirts.

With her husband and design partner Andy, Spade teamed with Haagen-Dazs to create canvas tote bags in the color and spirit of favorite ice cream flavors: Strawberry is a red bag with white lettering; rum raisin in a gold bag with royal blue; coffee is a taupe bag with brown; boysenberry is a purple bag with white; and the aforementioned chocolate chocolate chip is a brown bag with white.

The limited series of totes is inspired by the bright colors and graphics of Haagen-Dazs’ ice cream shop T-shirts that were sold in the 1970s and ’80s. The Spades were collectors of those shirts.