July 8, 2008
THERE'S a particular type of person who, over the years, has really managed to get under my skin.
THERE'S a particular type of person who, over the years, has really managed to get under my skin.
It's the Have You Noticed I Own A Very Large, Expensive Handbag Girl.
You know the one.
She's all over Sydney, toting her $3000 Chloe like she owns the damn shopping strip.
No doubt you've been wedged behind her and her gargantuan Balenciaga on an escalator at the mall, or she's corked you in the thigh with her YSL in a crowded bar.
Or perhaps you've been trapped in a lift at work as she twitters on to a fellow bag hag about how she just spent an entire month's salary on the latest Marc Jacobs.
And that she sleeps with it (don't laugh; I know a girl who has).
Yes, you can spot her coming a mile off, almost snapping under the weight of a contraption that possesses the proportions of a mini-bar.
Actually, first you see her bag. A few moments later she arrives behind it.
That's because Have You Noticed I Own A Very Large, Expensive Handbag Girl likes to carry her prized tote thrust out in front, perched in the crook of her arm, so as to advertise to the world that she indeed owns a stupendously large and expensive handbag.
I'm sure you know the look. It's dominated the gossip pages for years.
These bags even dictate the way she walks. I call it Bag Gait a bandy-legged, hunched-over totter, accentuated by the ungainly stacked heels she tends to wear with her bag.
So, why my gripe?
Well, I've come to realise that this kind of handbag is not just a piece of over-priced leather sackage. It's a potent symbol of the flagrant affluenza of the past five to 10 years.
Dripping in logos and superfluous hardware (buckles, dangly bits, studs etc), it screams consumerism gone rabid.
It doesn't say, I'm original or have a unique eye for style. There is nothing original about this look; it's fashion by numbers, a direct replication of whatever an Olsen twin wore last month.
No, it says to the world: Look at me, I can afford to spend a disproportionate wad of coin on such a non-necessity. Even when you can't. I know a lot of bag hags on $40K who live on lentils to fund their obsession.
Either way, such a statement is self-indulgent and arrogant.
And so it brings me great delight to announce that the bag hag's reign of nightclubs and footpaths is coming to an unfashionable end.
These so-called ``It Bags'' are on their way out.
Fashion editors in the US and UK have been talking of their demise for a while.
The editor of French Vogue has come out saying bags are for commoners and no longer carries one (I imagine she now stuffs her keys and mobile down her bra; I have been known to).
This was because everyone had begun buying into the previously elitist trend.
And the rip-offs at Kmart became too convincing.
Incidentally, Chanel responded to this democratisation of such a snobby trend by releasing a $US260,000 diamond-crusted model, called The Diamond Forever bag.
Ha, that'll keep the great unwashed from spoiling the fun!
But as we head into the eye of a recessional storm the real issue here is one of appropriateness.
Flaunting wealth was, until recently, simply annoying.
But in a climate where a full tank of petrol is bragging, paying four figures for a bag is crass.
I spoke to a number of women in Sydney's fashion industry this week to get their thoughts on the matter.
Acacia Stichter, an art director at Cleo magazine, says it's now embarrassing to be seen with a show-offy bag. ``It just makes you look out of touch,'' she said.
A bit like the guy who bought a Ferrari in the '80s only to drive into the doom and gloom of the '90s and find everyone thought he was a wanker.
Forbes magazine has pointed to a desire among the world's elite to look anything but rich, and have coined the term Stealth Wealth to describe the pendulum swing to more modest consumption.
Big brands are catching on. Chloe, for instance, has recently released a diffusion line of cheap, canvas bags with no insignia or celeb endorsements.
Fashion commentators are calling them "Me Bags'' - modest carry-alls that don't make a flashy statement.
"Goodbye It Bags, hello Me Bags,'' wrote a journalist from London's Times newspaper this week.
Off the back of this Stealth Wealth movement, global trend trackers Trendwatching say "caring'' - or demonstrative displays of it - is the new status symbol.
Indeed, last week the annual Merrill Lynch World Wealth report revealed the big trend among Australia's 172,000 millionaires is green investing.
Green is the new black, as they say.
Translated to the fashion world, I'm guessing girls will soon be barging around town in Save the Whales T-shirts.
trendwatching.com is an independent and opinionated consumer trends firm, relying on a global network of 8,000 spotters, working hard to deliver inspiration and pangs of anxiety to business professionals in 120+ countries worldwide. For more info, check out our latest (and free) Trend Briefing.
