Closet Dive: Maybe the Anti It Bag is an Ugly Fendi
My boyfriend likes Tesla trucks, but we’re a happy couple I swear! However, he will fight a battle on the hill that states the Cybertruck is the best looking car to debut in recent years.
Personally, I think Tesla trucks look a little too dystopian. Like what the capitalistic militia will be driving around in after things get real 1985 out here. Taste is subjective, of course, but when I asked my boyfriend what about the truck he likes, he said that it didn’t look like all the other new cars. All new cars look the same. I, a girl still without a driver’s license, hadn’t noticed until he pointed out the Toyota that looks like a Honda that looks like a Mazda.
Which kinda reminded me of what’s going on with handbags.
It’s been a big year for bags—philosophically. Last winter BOF spotlit handbag innovators in an era of copycats. Then in May, Vanessa Friedman asked if the handbag is over, et recently The Cut platformed the rich women now claiming the Birkin too common.
The handbag will never truly be over in a literal sense, but in a cultural/stylistic one it’s going through her Saturn return. Vanessa reported that—according to Lyst—handbag demands are down 5.5% compared to last year, while there’s been growth in searches for briefcases et garments with pockets. The girls are getting practical! While she notes factors like fashion’s widening reach completely changing the It Bag model to the rising cost of luxury accessories et the power signal of going bagless, might I add another:
The current handbag market does not have a Cybertruck.
In 2023, JW Anderson gave us the Cushion Clutch. An oversized clutch in the design of an actual pillow. Then we got a pigeon clutch, a frog clutch, a spaghetti shoulder bag, a tomate-shaped minaudière, a baguette umbrella bag, a clutch in the shape of a vase with flowers—et this was across JW Anderson, Loewe, Moschino, Fendi et Cult Gaia: novelty bags were way up. For Spring/Summer 2024 Alaïa gave us Le Teckel et the following Fall/Winter, KHAITE gave it a sister with their Simona. Et now, with designers reheating their own nachos à la high street collabs, nothing is safe from culture’s current appreciation for homogeneity.
However, the discourse surrounding the anti It Bag seems to orbit the following: The minimally designed wealth whispers ass bags, the quirky small business crafty type bags, et the carryall totes of the moment.
None of which particularly light my heart on fire, but when I needed a bag for the summer, I didn’t expect to go for one I’ve thought as hideous for the better part of the last decade.
The year was 2006. Nicholas Ghesquière was still at Balenciaga, Beyoncé dropped B’Day, Ashanti made her film debut in John Tucker Must Die, I was turning 13 et Fendi debuted the B Bag.
& the B doesn’t stand for beautiful. It does stand for buckle though, like the two x-large Fendi B Belt-inspired buckles right on the front flap. Et for a little razzle dazzle, it also has an aged brass curb chain strap with leather shoulder pads. Yum.
This is how it happened.
There I was, swiping through Grailed in Ganni when she appeared. (Probably a side effect from keeping them Fendi Baguette notifications ON across all platforms.) At first in a patent gold, then in pebbled brown leather—I was being jumped! Et followed. The B started popping up across all my online consignment favs. Then I saw the off-white canvas with the black patent leather accents, et I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a mere-exposure effect or was the B kinda maximalist…chic?
The small quirks of consignment shopping, sometimes the dust bags don’t match. Funny though, I’ve always found Goyard bags ugly.
Have things gotten so bad? Am I that starved for fantasy et story I’ve begun courting the ugly?! Is this aesthetic settling? It could very well be, but if they say it’s what’s inside that counts, she is roomier than you’d expect. She’s also quite heavy due to the amount of hardware, but I can’t help but appreciate its slightly offbeat appeal making every outfit a kind of nostalgic cool that doesn’t feel thirsty or next to vintage fishing.
Me & B just this week.
As Vanessa Friedman said, it’s a fool’s errand to declare anything in fashion as an out—et I suppose the same can be said about declaring something not your taste. Nothing is exempt from a pivot in feeling, but if we’re coming to a point where handbag dominance is wilting away because status signaling doesn’t work anymore, maybe there is no better time to give the gauche a go.
