The Anti-It Bag Revolt

Posted Aug 2, 2007 by Sandy Hughes

Updated Aug 6, 2007 at 09:09 AM

    Here they come again:  The latest crop of designer handbags.  And guess what?  It seems that, due to a sharp drop in consumer demand, the big luxury brands have finally returned to price levels that more realistically reflect actual value, rather than some arbitrary number pulled out of the stratosphere.
In other words, it appears that high-end designers have finally priced themselves out of the market.

    HA! JUST KIDDING!  The prices are higher than ever!!!

    Which means Dear Reader, that SOMEONE is buying enough of these things at full price to allow the madness to continue. 

    The question is, who is she, and how can she be stopped? 

    Because we all know the game by now—the luxury companies seed celebrities and magazine editors with free stuff to create enough of a demand to allow them to charge huge markups.  You only have to glance at the some of the prices in the high four-figures that are now the norm for “Premier Designer”  pieces to imagine the complex market analysis that goes into arriving at those numbers:

    “Wait, did you just write a three or an eight?”
“Uh, oh, well, I was thinking three, but—what the hell?  I like eight better!  More symmetrical, like a little snow man.”
  “Sure, why not?  It’s not like those suckers aren’t lining up to shell out the cash, no matter how many times we keep double-dog daring them.  Praise Jesus for the insecurity of the middle-class and their easy credit!”
   
    And if you’ll notice, the basic shapes and styles—pouchy and oversized with a bunch of outside pockets, zippers and doodads—haven’t really changed since Marc Jacobs introduced the look, what, five years ago?  The Kooba/ Botkier boho thing is played out, and so is the quilted stuff as far as we’re concerned.  Even—dare we say it?—the sacred Birkin appears to be starting to wear thin on the public’s collective psyche.  (Maybe it’s the prostitute thing?)
   
    The truth is, we haven’t seen anything lately that we’d want to buy at any price.
In fact, we’re so over the whole thing that the only bag we’ve carried for the last three months is a cheap straw tote. 

    And it appears that we’re not alone.  While we don’t expect much from the celebrity camp, (after all, why would they give up their freebies?), we noticed that at least one of them is showing some signs of rebellion.  

    And there are other signs as well.  The famous Anya Hindmarche “I Am Not A Plastic Bag”, (also reportedly carried by Kiera Knightly) originally retailed at Whole Foods for a modest $15.00. (The fact that they’re being bid up to triple digits on Ebay is just proof that some people still don’t get it, but, hey—baby steps, right?).  Even Barneys is getting into the act with their Loomstate for Barney’s Green organic beach bag.  Granted, $59 (on sale) isn’t exactly tote-bag cheap, but it’s certainly Barney’s cheap.  And it’s organic, so, you know, you’re helping the environment somehow.

Of course, our resistance won’t last forever—something new and cute is bound to come along, but for now it feels nice to just say NO to the It Bag for a while. 
   
    Long live the canvas tote!