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What happens when the handbag hype reaches its peak?...
That is one of the best questions I have ever seen on here!
And no, I do not have an answer
My speculation is that in the US, as changes in the larger economy touch more lives, that we will see companies maybe producing fewer products, but those products will cost much more than the "average designer bag" does today.
Already we see the beginnings of this trend, as the target market for luxury goods will decrease in number of consumers, but those consumers will have more money than ever.
So in my opinion, we will see more of bags with purchase prices in the six figure range, and a gradual decrease in the four-figure priced product.
That will be due to a combination of changes in disposable income as families meet the challenges of new economic direction, and, though it may seem inconceivable to many people here - market saturation!
There is one segment of the handbag market that is not talked about much, I don't know how represented it is here, but there are women who buy expensive handbags because they believe they are buying a product of such high quality that it will last them throughout their lives - especially their working lives.
They are not handbag collectors, they are not aficionados of a particular company. They will pay $2000 for a bag, but they are viewing it as a wardrobe investment, that will have a good amortization value over the 20-30 years they plan to use it - rotating it with just a handful of other expensive bags, and once they have their basic bag wardrobe - that's it. They are out of the market!
And you can come down the ecoomic ladder and see different versions of that, the woman who will buy three expensive bags, two, one. But their motivation, their reasons for purchase, are VERY different than those of someone who loves bags, whether that someone is buying designer bags or vintage bags or Target Clearance bags.
Most of us here will always at least want to buy more bags, no matter how many we have, no matter how much money we have, whether we like designer bags or prefer different bags - it is just a different way of looking at the product. Most of us are in one way or another, essentially collectors. But we have plenty of "utilitarian" sisters who may be buying designer bags today, but not tomorrow, because they already have what they consider a "good" brown bag, a "good" black one, etc. And no, they would never consider not having a fuschia one to be the serious wardrobe gap that for instance, I do.
