Popular designer handbag
An
It bag
is a high-priced designer handbag that has become a popular best-seller. The phenomenon arose in the fashion industry and was named in the 1990s and 2000s. Examples of handbag brands that have been considered "It bags" are
Chanel
,
Hermes
and
Fendi
.
History
[
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]
One of the first designers credited with creating the concept of the easily identifiable "status bag" was
Giuliana Camerino
, founder in 1945 of the Venetian fashion house Roberta di Camerino.
[1]
Camerino's handbags were instantly recognisable due to their artisan-made hardware and distinctive use of fabrics formerly reserved for clothing. Her innovations included in 1946, bags patterned with a trellis of R's (foreshadowing
Gucci
's G's), woven leather bags in 1957 (predating
Bottega Veneta
) and in 1964, she designed a handbag with a unique articulated frame which was later taken up by
Prada
.
[1]
The fashion houses of
Hermes
,
Chanel
and
Louis Vuitton
created handbags that became famous in their own right well before the concept of the "It bag" took hold. In 1935 Hermes created a top-handled leather bag called a
sac a depeches
as part of their leather goods range. In 1956 this design was renamed the
Kelly
after being prominently worn by
Grace Kelly
.
[2]
Coco Chanel
first created her quilted-leather
2.55
in February 1955.
[3]
In 1984, Hermes modified another of their designs, the
Haut a Courroies
(originally created around 1900) to create a bag for the actress and singer
Jane Birkin
.
[4]
The
Birkin
subsequently became one of the most desirable, widely recognised bags during the 1990s and early 2000s designer bag craze.
The term "It bag" was coined in the 1990s with the explosive growth of the handbag market in fashion. Designers competed to produce a single, easily recognisable design which, if cleverly marketed, endorsed by the fashion press, or seen being carried by a celebrity, would become that season's must-have bag, selling in large numbers. Designers such as Bottega Veneta, Chanel,
Fendi
, Hermes, Prada, Gucci, and Vuitton continued to be known as creators of desirable bags, rather than enjoying fame for one or two specific models. Among the more successful individual designs created during this time were the
Paddington
by
Chloe
, the
Motorcycle
by
Balenciaga
, and the
Alexa
(named for
Alexa Chung
) by
Mulberry
.
[5]
Chloe, in order to enhance the prestige and scarcity of the
Paddington
, enforced a waiting list for orders, although this led impatient customers to knowingly purchase counterfeit bags.
[6]
Must-have bags for a particular season were often targeted by criminals and stolen to order, to be sold for significantly reduced prices to people who wanted a fashionable bag without paying full retail.
[7]
For example, in 2007, the targeted bags were the
Lanvin
Olga Sac
and the
Givenchy
Bettina
, and in 2008, they were the Chanel
2.55
and the Balenciaga
Motorcycle
.
[8]
In the early 2000s the conceptual New York label
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
, founded by the Chinese-American designer
Mary Ping
, offered a range of consciously affordable bags deliberately based on It bags by Balenciaga, Dior and Gucci, but made in inexpensive calico with metalwork from
hardware stores
mirroring the original bags' exclusive designer fittings.
[9]
These bags were
Slow and Steady'
s way of challenging the concept of consumerism and inbuilt
obsolescence
in traditional fashion manufacture.
[10]
The Decline
[
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]
By 2008 the popularity of the "It bag" was reported to be in decline.
[11]
In May 2011, whilst acknowledging that there would always be customers for expensive status bags, Celia Walden reported that the concept of the must-have "It bag" was no longer in fashion.
[12]
In the late 2010s and early 2020s the phenomenon had a small revival with new styles like
Telfar
's shopping bags or
Bottega Veneta's
Cassette purse, as well as re-issues of older it bag styles such as the
Dior
saddle bag.
[13]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Patner, Josh (2006-02-26).
"From Bags to Riches"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
14 May
2010
.
- ^
"Hermes International S.A."
World Tempus. Archived from
the original
on 25 April 2011
. Retrieved
31 March
2012
.
- ^
Wallach, Janet (1999).
Coco Chanel - Her Style and Life
. London: Mitchell Beazley. p. 68.
ISBN
184000202-6
.
- ^
"In the Bag"
.
Time magazine
. 17 April 2007. Archived from
the original
on July 11, 2007
. Retrieved
31 March
2012
.
- ^
Gibson, Pamela Church (2013).
Fashion and celebrity culture
. London: Berg. p. 156.
ISBN
9780857852311
.
- ^
Napoleoni, Loretta (2010).
Rogue Economics
(A Seven Stories Press 1st ed.). New York: Seven Stories Press. p. 106.
ISBN
9781583229941
.
- ^
Dellecese, Cheryl.
"Crimes of Fashion"
. Retrieved
21 November
2013
.
- ^
Prabhakar, Hitha (2011).
Black market billions : how organized retail crime funds global terrorists
(Kindle ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press. p. 55.
ISBN
9780132180245
.
- ^
Blanchard, Tamsin (2007).
Green is the new black : how to change the world with style
(2. printing. ed.). London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 155.
ISBN
9780340954300
.
- ^
Mary Ping
in the
New York Fashion Now
exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum
- ^
Corcoran, Monica (January 20, 2008). "From 'It' to Obit".
Los Angeles Times
. p. 2.
- ^
Walden, Celia (May 5, 2011).
"Why I'm glad the It bag is over"
.
The Daily Telegraph
.
- ^
Janemarvel, Amy (2023-01-26).
"What defines an 'It' bag today?"
.
Jane Marvel
. Retrieved
2023-11-08
.
Further reading
[
edit
]