High fashion is in the bag – the bigger the better

The cult of the handbag has reached new heights, literally. The hottest handbags are as tall as 60cm and wider than a doorway; power bags large enough to hold a small bureau and topple a passerby with one swing of the shoulder. And the price tags are just as hefty at $2000 and up.

Chalk it up to the celebrity culture, women’s rising economic clout and one undeniable, intoxicating fact: You don’t have to be model-thin to wear one.

Observers of fashion and culture say “it bags” are to women what sports cars are to men; a competitive status symbol that knows no rational limits.

In a day when jeans and T-shirts are common and upper echelon executive women dress down to preserve authority, an outrageously expensive must-have “it bag”, especially one so big it’s hard to miss, announces its owner has arrived.

“It’s like a Hummer; built to do the kind of things no driver would ever do,” said Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University in the US. “It’s excessively overbuilt for what you need it for. The really giant purse has got that same sense. It says, ‘I can afford this excess even though all I’ve got in this is a wallet and an LG Chocolate cell phone’.”

In the past two years, sales of handbags in the US soared at a pace of nearly six per cent a year to an estimated $US6 billion ($A8 billion) in 2006, according to a report from market research firm Mintel International Group. While the pace of growth is expected to slow slightly, to more than five per cent a year through 2010, luxury analysts and culture experts predict the handbag hoopla will continue.

Celebrity and fashion magazines devote pages to stars and their handbags. Online chat forums and blogs, including Purseblog.com and Handbag.com, have sprung up for fans to swap tales about their favourite purses and the famous people who lug them... Kate Moss strolling down the street with her Mulberry Bayswater. Victoria Beckham hopping out of a car with her super-sized quilted Prada shopper. Lindsay Lohan swinging her curvy Fendi B. Heidi Klum voguing with her oversized YSL white ostrich Muse.

The Birkin is the holy grail of handbags. It takes years just to get on the waiting list. The price can range from $13,000 to $67,000 (AUD). And carrying one sends a signal of privilege that is difficult to match.

The TV show “Sex and the City” built an entire episode around the outrageous length the character of Samantha goes to in order to secure the coveted treasure.

Stewart isn’t the only woman to splurge on a handbag after reaching a certain echelon. It’s a common practice, say several executive women.

“It shows you mean business,” said Melissa Giovagnoli, president of Chicago-based Networlding.com, who totes a $2000 Prada. “It doesn’t matter if I’m using a Bic pen, as long as I have my Prada bag.”

Giovagnoli bought her first designer handbag four years ago. She was window shopping, eyeing a $800 Ferragamo purse, but decided to wait for a big account to justify the splurge. When a call came in from a long-time client asking her to speak at an event, she offered to do so for free as a favour.

The client insisted on paying, so Giovagnoli charged $800 and bagged the handbag. She carried it for years as a good luck charm and a reminder that she should charge what she’s worth, a message she shares with other businesswomen as part of her networking and coaching business.

Women have always been attached to their handbags. They carry them close to their sides. It holds all their personal belongings. It’s almost an “intimate extension of the body”, writes Anna Johnson in her book “Handbags: The Power of the Purse”.

Research shows women buy on average three bags a year, up from one every two years in 2000, according to NPD Group.

Anne MacDonald, chief marketing officer of Macy’s owner Federated Department Stores, changes her bag daily. She has a wardrobe full of Lambertson Truex handbags all neatly stacked on shelves, stuffed with tissue paper to keep their shape.

“I’m like Imelda Marcos with shoes,” MacDonald laughs, showing off the luxurious inside lining of a Lambertson
satchel she bought 11 years ago.

Grace Tsao-Wu, owner of Tabula Tua, once carried the same bag for three months. Now, she has set up a small table by her door to hold her handbags for the week, right next to her mobile phone charger and Blackberry.

“Lately, I switch bags often,” said Tsao-Wu. “I easily carry two or three bags a week. I didn’t used to do that. There’s some addictive quality about it. A handbag has a major presence on the body. They take up a lot of space, especially these days.”

The Mintel report noted women from all demographics are susceptible to buying a purse on impulse on any given day. It is no wonder, then, that many department stores have moved their handbag departments to prominent spaces near the stores’ entrance.
To be sure, most women can’t help but carry way too much in their handbags. And who knows how many women will be visiting their doctors’ offices this year with knotted necks and twisted shoulders.

But Cindy Burrell won’t be one of them. The Chicago executive said she got tired of being the porter for her family. “You just end up carrying everyone else’s stuff around. When I had a larger purse my husband and children would give me their stuff. I carry a little purse now.”

Source: citynews.com.au