Around 2004, somewhere between the Balenciaga Lariat and the Chloé Paddington, we reached peak It bag. It is funny to think about, now that the handbag market is all about cross-body comfort and accessible price tags, the obsessive worship once directed at bonkers-looking handbags. Back then, Vogue described the handbag as “that totemic accessory that announced you were owner of all that was desirable in the world”.
The status of the It bag soared sky high, entirely unmoored from the practical notion of a handbag as a vessel for stuff. The tiny Fendi Baguette – “foolish, a treat, anti-functional”, according to Silvia Fendi, who designed it – but still became almost a character in its own right on Sex and the City. The Chloé Paddington weighed 3lb even when completely empty, thanks to the hefty padlock (hardly optimal, you would think, for an object designed to be filled and then carried around all day) but this did not deter the 8,000 women who were on the waiting list before it arrived in stores.
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