'It Bags' can hold little and say a lot

Handbags are big this fall. Really big.

The cult of the handbag has reached new heights, literally. The hottest handbags are close to 2 feet tall 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 $1,500 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. "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 soared at a pace of nearly 6 percent a year to an estimated $6 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 5 percent 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 favorite 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 supersized quilted Prada shopper. Lindsay Lohan swinging her curvy Fendi B. Heidi Klum voguing with her oversize YSL white ostrich Muse.

And, of course, the famous Hermes Birkin that Martha Stewart toted to her trial. Stewart revealed in a Barbara Walters interview, before heading off to prison, that she bought the bag to reward herself after she became successful.

The Birkin is the holy grail of handbags. It takes years just to get on the waiting list. The price can range from $10,000 to $50,000. 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 lengths 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 $1,500 Prada. "It doesn't matter if I'm using a Bic pen, as long as I have my Prada bag."

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 Federated Department Stores Inc., parent of Marshall Field's-turned-Macy's, changes her bag daily. She has a closet 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.

Source: contracostatimes.com