BAGS OF STYLE
Bags of Style - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Bags of Style | |||||
| By: Christine Hogan, Issue 15 – Winter 2003 | |||||
| (Hand bag review) | |||||
| MOVE OVER, MANOLO. DESIGNER HANDBAGS ARE THIS SEASON’S HOTTEST FASHION ACCESSORY AND WOMEN CAN’T WAIT TO GET THEIR HANDS ON THEM. | |||||
| In simpler times our lives were simpler – and so were our handbags. Women had fewer of them, not a wardrobe full as they do now. Men had a briefcase. According to an ‘inside’ story on bags in The New York Times in 1945,this is typical of what a woman then carried: a couple of lipsticks and a compact that wouldn’t close; one fresh hanky, two crumpled ones; laundry bill and dry cleaning tickets; nylon stockings to be repaired; address book, cigarettes and matches; leather picture folder; ration books; cards for the furrier and beauty parlour; scraps of paper with telephone numbers but no names; one hairnet; vitamins; fabric samples; fountain pen and pencils; parcel of cherished letters from husband/boyfriend still at war in the Pacific. No mention of any keys – for her car, his car, his mother’s, her mother’s, the office keys, the gym lockers, the front and back door keys as well as the window locks which are, of course, a major feature of the modern woman’s daily hand baggage. More importantly, what about the lip balm, hairbrush and hand cream? A quick look through the modern woman’s essentials, as described by the American National Accessories Association, shows very different priorities more in tune with today’s busy lifestyles. There are business cards, credit cards, a beeper, tissues (some still in the dispenser), Tic Tacs, chequebook, purse, electronic organiser, mobile phone, make-up bag stuffed to the zipper, assorted pens, and a full wallet. Plus two unwanted kilos of keys. And there is often a second bag. Not only do women have to hang on to the appropriate handbag, but they also have to tote a tote, into which are crammed the dieter’s lunch, a diary, files, newspapers and magazines, a book, umbrella, and a change of shoes. Fifty years ago ,a woman might have had three classic, over-the-wrist, Queen-style bags (black, cream and navy) with rigid frames that lasted for years. For evenings, there were little velvet clutches, big enough to take only a purse perfume spray, a lippy and a tiny comb and mirror combination. After-hours, men had rucksacks. These days, the bag question is much more complex, and the price range as broad as the smile on a buyer’s face. You can bag a designer bag from around $500 up to $30,000,depending on what you want, what it’s made out of, and how great the demand for that particular desirable object is. This ‘trophy bag’ craze has been developing for some years. The most recent wave started when international style maven, Dawn Mello, was employed to revitalize the fortunes of the declining fashion house of Gucci at the beginning of the 1990s.The designer Tom Ford jazzed up the brand, using the iconic bamboo that Gucci traditionally used in its designs, and reinterpreted it into chic, slick bamboo-handled bags for a new generation. Paloma Picasso, the jewellery designer, also did a range of bags, using her familiar cipher, the irregular X. At one stage, you couldn’t move at the races for the smart devices. About five years ago, Prada introduced the bowling bag, a wonderful, witty little bag quickly imitated by every discount bag manufacturer in the world.Net result – the bowling bag went from cutting-edge to yesterday in less than a season. The house of Fendi raised the stakes with its baguette in 1997. The normally staid fashion house suddenly became hot with its smart range of embellished envelopes with shoulder straps. The prices went from around $1,000 to $4,000 (right up to $25,000 for a special edition of only 50 in cloth of gold and semi-precious stones). These days, you can still get a Fendi baguette, but now it’s called a classic, and the listed price on www.luxestyle.com is around $1,000.After the baguette, the heat went out of the bag business for a number of seasons, but it started to revive with the Louis Vuitton graffiti bag a couple of years ago, followed by Christian Dior’s saddle bag. The trendiest of trendsetters simply had to have one of these asymmetrical bags, with their flapping leather strap details. This season, the French and Italian luxury goods houses are all back in the bag game. Louis Vuitton has gone shiny lacquer in hot pink and violet, and created what’s called the Murakami bags for the new season. A design collaboration between Marc Jacobs and contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, the dazzling new look features white monogrammed leather overprinted with bright summer colours, trimmed with buff leather and featuring much of the detail of the brand’s legendary luggage lines. As well, there is a monogram cherry blossom Papillon bag (a shape that Twiggy was photographed with in the 1960s). The newest from Vuitton is a beautifully crafted bag in goat’s leather (pictured Luxury Style cover), due in shops from this month, which will sell for between $3,000 and $6,000. At Ferragamo, the bag of the season is the Salvatore, a double-handled ‘doctor’s bag’ with zippered side pockets which is available in three sizes, and several colours and materials: heavy nylon, brushed black calf or brown pony skin and same-colour leather. It’s named after the company’s founder, Salvatore Ferragamo, and its shape was inspired by the bag which he used in the late 1940s to carry the prototypes of his footwear, hides and the tools of his craft. The Salvatore is a revival – in the mid-1960s, it was the first bag to bear the Ferragamo signature. Prices range from $1,175 for the large bag to $1,025 for the smaller version. Fendi is also looking at a revival of its iconic bags – the Ostrick and more recent Diavolo, which sells from $1,200 to $3,000,and the Biga bag. They cost from $1,400 to $6,500, depending on the hand-worked embroidery, beading and appliqué required to give the artisinal finish. Three hundred Biga mesh bags will be made for the global market – price close to $20,000 plus a six-month wait. Gucci has returned to its traditional reference – bamboo – with its new Bullet bag, which features a strip along the front of the roll-shaped bag. One of the house’s most popular bags, however, recognises the need of the modern women for a handbag that accommodates more than a packet of breath mints and the black Amex card. The Cézanne is its most popular bag, a canvas tote which costs from $800. And so to the Rolls-Royce of the bag world – the Hermès Birkin and Kelly bags. For a Kelly (named because Grace Kelly used one to hide her early pregnancy), prices range from around $8,000 (leather) to about $18,000 (ostrich) and $25,000 (crocodile). The Birkin (pictured previous page) was created in 1984 for the actor Jane Birkin and the woman who wants to drag her entire life around with her, and ranges in price from $11,000 to around $33,000.If you want one made to order, you might have to face a five-year wait, but you could comfort yourself in the meantime with Hermès’ Le MM, designed by Martin Margiela, the women’s ready-to-wear designer for the house. He debuted his first handbag in the Autumn/Winter 2002-2003 collection. Made from calfskin, the MM had no fastenings, two straps of differing lengths, a flap closure on the top and, like the Model T Ford, was available only in black. A new pale leather Le MM is arriving soon, retailing at $7,125 with deliveries expected in store this month. Coco Chanel had her handbags made to order as well, and the mix of chain and quilting is constantly being reinterpreted through the years by Karl Lagerfeld. There is always a red lined bag in the collection – all Mademoiselle’s were made like this. Hers also had a special, hidden compartment for her cocaine supply – definitely something which would be a special order these days If you want that extra secret pocket, you might want to tell the sales assistant you need somewhere to keep your hair net. | |||||
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