Do you ever find yourself wanting a bag because of hype/popularity/FOMO?

[Pursephile]

And if yes, did you buy the bag? Did you regret the purchase or did it spark a new obsession?

This isn’t really a brand-specific question, thoughts on all bags/brands are welcome, but if it picks up I might make separate threads for specific brands!

For me: I got sucked into the Birkin hype because I suddenly saw an explosion of them around me, and of course they’re exceedingly popular on this forum and handbag lovers everywhere. I found myself stalking preloved sites, even contemplating beginning the arduous process of buying a bunch of stuff I don’t want or need to get my hands on a bag… and then it just struck me that I don’t really like how the bag looks, I find it impractical, and in general - no Hermes bag appeals to me (*runs from pitchforks*) except maybe the picotin, but I don’t like bags that don’t close securely and easily so I would never use one! And if I had to spend $15k(ish? More? Less? God knows) on a handbag - I’d rather buy myself a Chanel or two! The only thing driving my desire for a Birkin was pure FOMO.

So I never got one, and I have no plans of getting one, and if someone just magically gave me one for free I’d probably keep it, just to say I have one, but I’d rarely use it (and perhaps would end up selling it).

What about you?

 

[Midge Maisel]

I spent half the summer looking for the perfect raffia bag and the other half of the summer re-watching The Golden Girls and realizing that Sophia Petrillo was a) a style icon ahead of her time and b) not my style icon. So no, I didn't buy it.

 

[S0nia]

Never.

Hype is always manufactured and IMO the result of carefully prepared and planned campaigns. Propaganda, if you prefer.
Things that are highly popular tend to have nothing special, in my eyes anyways, but the febrility, the fever, the craze that builds around them is highly vulgar. And it pushes people into all sorts of degrading behaviours, in the name of.... an object.
"Humiliation rituals": queuing hours, stalking websites, travelling for shopping, crying about SAs, buying sh*t you don't need, going back to be rejected again and again, having to beg for somebody to accept your money, dancing the BDSM tango with SAs etc.

Cult-like behaviour. Idolatry. Worship is to be directed to God only. Not towards objects nor their creators. Certainly not towards handbags...

The people who designs these hype campaigns know very well that a good chunk of the fashion clientele are, at the very least, fashion victims, if not completely mentally ill. A lot are not stable in the head: shopaholics, OCDs, psychotics, low self-esteem, attachment disorders, hoarders, pervert narcissists, masochists etc. All sorts of nutty.

Now, I am tight with my money, but I also have a solid ego. I don't take sh*t, especially from people whose agenda is to take money from me (and not the other way around). I don't bellydance for anything. No, *YOU* kiss my a$$.

I am also a contrarian. Something automatically pushes me in the opposite direction of what everybody is doing. I hate groups and crowds. I find massing up around anything distasteful. Popular sentiment is always wrong. Widely admired stuff is tacky. Whatever everybody thinks, is stupid. I look down with contempt on followers of anything. Yadi yada. In other words, I am a massive hipster.

I chase down obscure stuff. I enjoy being among the firsts onto something new; but the minute it goes wide, I dump it. I would rather walk around naked than wear the same thing as somebody else. I am either avant-garde or arrière-garde: never in the pack. Pack it for cattle. I love archival stuff (whatever that means). The unknown with potential or the discarded has-been stuff that had its day in the sun. And boy do I gatekeep... Hardcore!

And because all of that is just sooooo exhausting, I have solved my problems by adopting a black uniform, and I rotate the bags juuuuuust enough to still qualify in the "fashion club".

In other word, I am a snob. Massive snobbish bish and proud of it.
LOL!

 

[880]

Nope. occasionally RTW, but not bags. I tend to stay away from sale merchandise and usually do not purchase items in the presence of girlfriends bc I tend to lose my head and get caught up in the spur of the moment. I might go back and buy something once I’ve thought about it though, and I rely heavily on the opinion of regular SAs who know my taste and what I already own. I also prefer to buy multiples of the same thing, or at least stuff I know I will use, and I avoid regret returns.

 

[nyeredzi]

I got a Marc Jacobs The Tote Bag because of hype. I thought it was stupid to have a giant “THE TOTE BAG” stamped on the front. I still think it’s kind of stupid, like have a hat that says “hat” or a shoe that says “shoe”, lol. I even thought I didn’t like tote bags, and even that is still a little true. They aren’t the prettiest shape to me. But, I got one when I saw a color I really liked and it turned out that I really like that bag!

I bought a Polene Neuf a little due to Polene hype, and I totally love that bag. My 2nd favorite, maybe.

Now I’m walking around all cocky with a false sense of confidence, lol. So far, even when I’m influenced, I don’t get influenced to something I *truly* dislike.

 

[FlairBear]

No but indirectly maybe. Sometimes through time, the more you see the bag, the more exposure it gets, sometimes the bag which you don’t quite like at first grows on you and you grow to like it. I am specifically thinking of two times this happened to me. I am thinking of the Celine luggage bag in 2010 and the Dior saddle when it was rereleased in 2018. At first, I didn’t like the Celine luggage because the front looked like a robot face. But I caved beginning of 2012 and ended up searching for it and getting it. For the Dior Saddle, I was bothered by the kidney/bean shape, but finally ended up getting it Spring of 2021. Both bags were popular and trendy and I grew to like them after disliking them, with more exposure, with time. Looking back, although I did sell the luggage a year ago, I see the bags as classic to their brand.

Now that I am older and wiser with my bag purchases, and as much as new bags come along which are introduced, hyped up etc, I usually think harder about getting things that I will most likely tire of quickly. I try to stick with more classic bags, classic styling. The last year few years, I have been liking the look of Bulgari bags but I have told myself no. Currently, I am wanting the Gucci horsebit chain shoulder bag, but I am telling myself no.

 

[malachitenine]

I can't say i've made a serious purchase on hype factor though possibly it could have coincided with it. Most of the time I know what I like and I don't change my mind. The main thing that gives me pause are pricetags and weighing up other things I want in life (travel, shows, making my house nicer).

 

[Midge Maisel]

No but indirectly maybe.

I think it's easy to forget how much we get influenced without even really realizing it!

 

[Pursephile]

Loving all these answers! I actually resonate a lot with what @bernpl said about how the more exposure a bag gets the more a bag grows on you! Some of the bags I've desperately wanted basically grew out of seeing it either on friends or in the media. The Issey Miyake Bao Bao was like that for me, actually!

 

[Tuned83]

In my younger days yes I fell for the hype and just had to have that 'it' bag even though said it bag was impractical and did not work for me.

Now however it's a solid no and I am not as interested anymore. All that money goes elsewhere now and that is fine.

 

[Amazona]

I think I've been incluenced a couple of times to the extent that I bought the bag. And then, I bought another one in the same style because it was so good. Coach Field tote (have 30&40 sizes) and Kurt Geiger Kensington XXL (have one in teal leather and one in black&white tweed) would be the bags in question.

RM MAC was a bag I bought after all the hype it got. I loved the bag but hated the strap so I sold it. Now I find myself loving chain straps and actually bought a similar bag to the MAC a few years ago - very happy with the bag and the fact that I tried the style in the first place. I did make a very good profit selling the MAC because the hype was still on.
I feel like this is the same with f.e. C flaps and H B - the hype keeps the prices up on the preloved market and people will keep buying them new as well. A controversial opinion, I know, but the fact is less than 20 yrs ago you could buy a preloved, authentic C flap with all the documents for 200 euros and you mostly only saw old money carrying C flaps. After they started trending on Instagram and other social media the sales and prices started to climb.

 

[S0nia]

I feel like this is the same with f.e. C flaps and H B - the hype keeps the prices up on the preloved market and people will keep buying them new as well. A controversial opinion, I know, but the fact is less than 20 yrs ago you could buy a preloved, authentic C flap with all the documents for 200 euros and you mostly only saw old money carrying C flaps. After they started trending on Instagram and other social media the sales and prices started to climb.

And the very same old money, sensing the turning in the road ahead, will sell all of those to the infatuated rabble, keeping only the best specimens (exotics, SO etc.) for themself.... And once the prices have collapsed and the hyped up crowds find themselves stuck with huge collections of worthless items, in the middle of an economic & geopolitical crisis... then the buy back can begin at dirt cheap prices...

This is why I never pay attention to any hype. There is nothing worse than manipulation.

 

[Amazona]

And the very same old money, sensing the turning in the road ahead, will sell all of those to the infatuated rabble, keeping only the best specimens (exotics, SO etc.) for themself.... And once the prices have collapsed and the hyped up crowds find themselves stuck with huge collections of worthless items, in the middle of an economic & geopolitical crisis... then the buy back can begin at dirt cheap prices...

This is why I never pay attention to any hype. There is nothing worse than manipulation.

The way the world works.

There are different kinds of hype though. There's the kind that comes from paid ads and sponsored content, but also the kind that comes from a genuine good product being worth its price. Aaand of course there is also the status hype. The true skill is to see the difference.

 

[S0nia]

The way the world works.

There are different kinds of hype though. There's the kind that comes from paid ads and sponsored content, but also the kind that comes from a genuine good product being worth its price. Aaand of course there is also the status hype. The true skill is to see the difference.

As well, having the restrain and the self-control required to play long games about true value. But hype destroys any sort of cool-headedness and discipline.

 

[LacedUpLj]

I can't say that I have. On the other hand, I've got a nasty obsession with vintage bags that I can't seem to cure. Its so bad that years ago I invested a ton of money in the supplies and learning how to refurbish them and it's only gotten worse. There are a few iconic bags I've fallen in love with, especially Versace & JC bags, just a tad bit late.