June 4, 2006
[SIZE=-2]By BILL CUNNINGHAM[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Any doubt that the handbag is the engine behind current fashion was dispelled in March 2005 when the Paris house Louis Vuitton presented its fall collection. The 300 photographers and their 300-millimeter lenses, traditionally placed at the end of the runway, were suddenly moved to its sides.
Within minutes arguments broke out: The photographers could not get head-to-toe shots of the models without shoving their long lenses in one another's faces. I stopped shooting the show and began documenting the mayhem. Afterward, an editor asked the executive of the house why the photographers had been moved. He replied: "We wanted them eye level with the handbags, because that's what sells."
Now, in this, the Year of the Loudly Shouting Overembellished Handbag, it's the simplest bag that appears to be the winner what looks like a blowup version of the quilted Chanel bag, with heavy chain handles and a metal frame.
First seen in February 2005 in New York at Marc Jacobs's fall collection, top left. Like most designer bags, it cost about $1,200. By September the bag was on the shoulders of Madison Avenue shoppers. By the February 2006 shows it was the favorite of fashionable women. By March it had spread to Paris. In April it was everywhere in lighter colors.
Shown here, clockwise from top left, is the bag as it evolved from its 2005 runway debut to its street appearance in September 2005 to its recent adoption by club kids, who purchase it from pushcart vendors for $45. Next? Watch for the originals to show up in thrift shops. At left, Mr. Jacobs's version for fall 2006. The designer is a nominee for two prestigious awards at the Council of Fashion Designers of America ceremony tomorrow night at the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue.
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....that's good!
NOW, I want this bag! Fake or not, most of these look fabulous on these women. I love NY, most of the women really have a great sense of style!