Hey Sasha, I feel your pain. The September issue of W features a witty spin on the age-old bag lady story, except this time the gypsy's bags are of the shopping variety, courtesy of Dior, Zara and Ferragamo. Tongue-in-chic critiques on recession-proof values are a dime a dozen nowadays but W's contribution to the economy blame-game holds hefty weight. Not only does it attack the desperation of conspicuous consumption, but it also serves a visual pun; the punniness stemming from the common practice of saving your "best" shopping bag. You know that person who throws their Duane Reade bags in the trash but saves the one piece of visual evidence from that Gucci purchase they made in '06. Now I've seen all sorts of creative uses for luxury shopping bags: toiletry cases, temporary school bags, furniture showpieces, etc). Unrelated: I even remember a short-lived trend-piece in a 1996 issue of YM about carrying McDonald's Happy Meal boxes as purses. Back to shopping bags as status symbols, Christopher Lasch once said "nothing succeeds like the appearance of success". So maybe the ''it'' bag hasn't died at all. Maybe it just went vegan.
For all my bag ladies in the house.
