Opinion | Get over the ‘it’ bag: why fashion’s annual ‘must-have’ is an ugly relic of times gone by
Wokey, wokey! Throwing away each season’s latest fads is a disaster for the planet, and very soon, your street cred. And anyway, who even needs a cumbersome bag these days? Not Anna Wintour, that’s for sure
One of the biggest perils of being a fashion journalist is that you are expected to dispense style advice at any given moment (it happens most frequently during dinners out – hungry women are especially demanding). With spring upon us, the most common question I am being asked is, “What is the ‘it’ bag this season?”
Is it just me or is this entire concept of an ‘it’ bag a relic of fashion’s ugly “pre-sustainability” past?
Hermès and Chanel may claim that the Birkin and the 2.55, respectively, pre-date the whole “it” bag phenomenon, which started with Fendi’s Baguette and its appearance in Sex and the City, but the style that propelled the trend was the Chloé Paddington. You may not remember it, but I do. Made from thick vegetable-tanned leather, the awkward, elongated bag was dominated by two extra-long straps and a bulky lock, which meant it weighed more than a small child even when half empty.
Its proportions may have been unsightly but that didn’t stop it from becoming an overnight sell-out, with waiting lists a mile long. I even had a friend from London call to ask if I could help her jump the “queue”.
Since then countless “it” bags have followed, from Mulberry’s Bayswater and Marc Jacobs’ Stam to modern sisters Celine’s Trapeze, Givenchy’s Nightingale and the Valentino Rockstud range.
