FASHION : How to Bag a Status Symbol
Many women try to affect an individual style with their clothes, but when it comes to their choice of handbag the “herd mentality” invariably takes over. There are so many 12-inch Louis Vuitton bags and quilted Chanel bags with the interlocking C s you’d think they were the only purses made. And for many women, they are the only pocketbooks worth having. They are status bags.
Since the 1950s only four handbags have been able to reach this exclusive rank: the square Kelly bag by Hermes with its famous lock and key; the barrel-shaped Vuitton “Speedy” with the monogram print; the Gucci bag with the reverse image G print; and the quilted Chanel bag with the leather-threaded chain shoulder strap.
While other fashion trends swiftly saturate the market and then just as quickly evaporate, these bags hang on for decades, eventually showing up in blatant knockoff versions. In their original form, however, they are part of what might be called the handbag hall of fame.
At the high end of this lineup is the Kelly bag ($9,995 for one in crocodile), which was introduced in 1950, and got its name from Grace Kelly, who was an avid collector of the style. For at least two decades, the demand for Kelly bags was on the wane, says Tom Raney, a retail consultant, but five years ago young women began buying them secondhand. “It was,” according to Raney, “the retro trend” that spurred the imitation bag makers, which, in turn, increased demand for the originals.
Now, new Kelly bags are so popular, says Valerie Lickman of the Hermes New York office, that the Paris workrooms of Hermes have two years of back orders for the smallest version of the Kelly bag in black calfskin ($2,750.)
The Louis Vuitton “Speedy” made its debut in 1959. Made of a specially coated dark brown fabric that feels like vinyl, it has an interlocking L-V print and comes in four different sizes, the most popular being 12-inch at $280.
The “Speedy” doesn’t have the royal backing of the Kelly bag. It’s roots are more common. According to Ron Michaels the manager of the Beverly Hills Vuitton shop, it is the most popular seller because it is one of the oldest, most recognizable and least expensive items in the Vuitton line. Because of its comparatively low price, it appeals to an “entry-level customer,” one who will spend $250 on a purse but not $1,000.
The Chanel bag is a newcomer. It showed up on the fashion scene shortly after Karl Lagerfeld began designing the Chanel ready-to-wear line in 1983 and according to a Chanel spokesperson Tracy Lawrence “it hit the big time in 1987.”
How does a pocketbook start down the path to glory?
The first women to embrace an item, and whose opinions count for something, are the fashion forecasters--editors, models, designers and their publicists. Celebrities and first ladies of power and politics are the next to own one. Then the herd begins to stampede, and the savvy imitators start churning out the look-alikes. If the original bag continues to sell at $1,000 while the imitations are selling at the discount stores for under $20, a status bag is born.
“When a bag is hot, it doesn’t matter that there are less expensive versions,” says Karen Katz of Neiman Marcus. “The status customer feels good that she can buy it at its original price.”
There are many handbag manufacturers hungry to get on this fashionable gravy train. Katz considers Prada one of the most likely contenders for future fame and fortune.
Prada bags aren’t new; the company has been around for 90 years. But two of its bags getting considerable attention these days were introduced just over three years ago. One version is made of silk and nylon, the other of satin. Since last fall, Prada bags have been seen on the shoulders of international models Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington and fast-lane blonds Dyan Cannon and Diandra Douglas. This past spring fashion victims started to gobble them up in multiples.
The one strike against the Prada bag is that it is relatively nondescript, which makes it hard to identify across The Bistro Garden. In Europe the preferred style is the backpack ($330); in the United States, the large totes with chain shoulder straps ($385-$450) are more popular. Since the Prada boutique opened in Beverly Hills six months ago, 620 of the tote bags have been sold, owner Judy Leaf reports. Only the logo--a small inverted gold triangle affixed to the bags--indicates they are from the same manufacturer.
Now may be a good time for Prada to make its move. There is an opening in the status bag lineup. Gucci is abandoning its position by taking its famous initial print bags off the market. Not only is it abandoning the logo print that made Gucci famous, since the beginning of this year the Italian company has been pulling all of its wares out of the 500 stores that carried the line.
Gucci spokesperson Pilar Crespi explains that the bag with the monogram print, even though it was profitable, is not the image the company now wants. They desire a return to exclusivity.
Indeed, the Gucci bag has become downright common. It has been copied and sold by the roadside in Tijuana, imitated and offered at discount stores and found in the duty-free shops at international airports.
For their status-handbag customer, Gucci is now bringing back an old style for its new image, a shaped leather bag with bamboo handles that was popular during the ‘50s. Once the most coveted bag in the Gucci lineup, it was carried by Ava Gardner, Liz Taylor, and Audrey Hepburn as well as former first ladies Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Nancy Reagan. In some dowager circles it remains the favorite. Today’s new versions go for $825 for a small calfskin to $2,300 for a large lizard.
Perhaps the bamboo-handled bag will make a comeback, just as the Kelly bag did. Only time and imitations will tell.
