Luxury Paper Shopping Bags Are In Demand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The paper shopping bags of high-end fashion labels have become on-trend items for everything from ferrying lunches to appearing in TikTok backgrounds.

 

To the uninitiated, it may seem like lovers of high fashion are getting up earlier these days. But the plethora of designer paper bags seen on the bus in the mornings often do not contain purchases from Chanel or Prada – but commuters’ packed lunches.The trend brings a whole new meaning to the term “designer bag”, with even Birkin-loving Kim Kardashian seen clutching one at Balenciaga’s show in Los Angeles this month. 

 

On resale sites such as eBay, empty paper carrier bags from luxury brands such as Chanel and Balmain can sell for as much as £65. Prices for a paper Hermes bag start at £45, while the box begins at £200. A Smythson bag with matching tissue paper tends to go for £40, while a set including eight different brands – spanning Gucci, Burberry and La Mer – starts from £114. 

 

Kardashian’s particular bag was later revealed to be a collaboration between Balenciaga and Erewhon – an expensive organic grocery store in the US that has become a mecca for health freaks. It has become the most high-profile example of the unlikely movement for carrier bags that is sweeping high-fashion, as well as the secondhand market.

 

Even an advertising campaign for the luxury brand Bottega Veneta showed the American rapper – and Rihanna’s husband – ASAP Rocky carrying an ersatz brown paper supermarket bag, which he filled with chard and orange chrysanthemums. Dubbed the “Medium Brown Bag”, it is made from suede-lined calfskin – and retails for £1,800. 

 

It riffs on the department store chain Bloomingdale’s, which first launched its paper “Little Brown Bag” in 1973. Instantly recognisable, it became a signifier of an aspirational American lifestyle. A PVC version followed in 1995.

 

There are many reasons for consumers buying into the trend via resold £10 paper Chanel bags on resale sites. Some buy them to display in their homes, the Gen Z equivalent of fine-bone china. Others use them to create an illusion of wealth – either in public or on social media. Instagram and Tiktok is awash with influencers carefully placing them in the background or being incorporated into footage of shopping hauls and “unboxing” videos – in which users dramatically undo ribbons and peel back tissue paper to reveal their latest purchase. 

 

Some people buy real designer carrier bags in which they give fake designer bags as gifts. Others may have bought a real designer item on a secondhand site and want the corresponding carrier bag to match. There are even TikTok hacks for turning a designer paper bag into a more durable bag by wrapping it in plastic.

 

In 2021, a study found that a group of 17 black-and-white paper Chanel carrier bags sold for £265. December is one of the busiest months, with Tiffany’s signature blue bags and Jo Malone boxes in particularly high demand. 

 

Isabelle Szmigin, a professor of marketing at the University of Birmingham, says carrier bags are tied up with identity. “They have value and substance because it implies that you have some connection with that brand and that means credibility, especially on social media”, she added. 

 

One eBay user, who wishes to remain anonymous, is a VIP customer at Harrods and started selling her old paper bags as a side hustle during lockdown. She says as a VIP she regularly receives purchases in limited edition carrier bags that differ from those given to general customers, making them particularly desirable. 

 

Another user, Helen Pacey recently sold an empty Christian Dior paper bag and matching gift box that had originally housed one of the brand’s perfumes for £85. She said: “Demand for these type of paper bags really took off when the plastic bag levy was introduced. People now see them as a luxury. Many are embossed and tied with a ribbon. It makes you feel more special”.

Met Gala 2022 Red Carpet

It seems that social media has killed good taste at the Met Gala! 

It was once touted as the epitome of chic, but celebrities attending New York’s premier fashion event are now more likely to be playing it for laughs – and Likes! 

If you don’t know, the Met Gala is fashion’s biggest night of the year. Returning to the traditional first-Monday-in-May slot on the social calendar for the first time in three years, i.e. May 02, this year’s party made it abundantly clear that the fashion world is not remotely chastened, dimmed or otherwise humbled by the pandemic. 

From Katy Perry as a hamburger to Rihanna as the pope, the party has given us the most unforgettable celebrity looks of the past decade, and this year’s event showed no sign of slowing down. 

Modern party dressing, trailblazed by the Met, is dressing up as fancy dress rather than dressing up as an aspiration to elegance. Fashion’s biggest night of the year is now entirely about looking spectacular, rather than stylish. 

Much is made of the ultra-exclusive invite list of the Met Gala where individual tickets are reported to cost over $30,000, but what happens inside the party is entirely beside the point. 

Actually, the real party happens on Instagram, and everyone is invited. Kim Kardashian’s 300 million followers saw her in the very dress Marilyn Monroe wore to sing Happy Birthday to JFK in 1962 before her table mates did!

Kim Kardashian in Marilyn Monroe’s ‘happy birthday’ dress. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue 

The cartoonish wackiness is so prevalent. Jessie Buckley, in a Schiaparelli suit, wore a fake moustache. Gigi Hadid wore a burgundy latex bodysuit under a vast puffer jacket. Dakota Johnson and Jared Leto came as identical twins, down to their red satin bow ties and crystal hair barrettes. 

And beneath all that irreverent silliness, the pursuit of impossible levels of physical perfection is a deadly serious business. Kim Kardashian revealed that because Monroe’s dress was a historical artefact and could not be altered, she lost 16lbs in three weeks to fit into it. 

Cara Delevingne, taking the dress code of Gilded Glamour literally, removed the top half of her Dior morning suit on the red carpet to reveal nothing but gold body paint with matching nipple covers. Emily Ratajkowski, similarly, chose vintage Versace – it was last worn by model Yasmeen Ghauri on a 1992 Versace runway and making its Met Gala reappearance a moment around three decades in the making – made entirely of beads and chains above the waist, without even a wisp of fabric. The approval of the arbiters of good taste has been replaced by social media’s rapacious appetite for bare flesh.

Cara Delevingne: Literally gilded. Photo: Matt Baron/Rex/Shutterstock

Emily Ratajkowski: Vintage Versace. Photo: Neville Marriner/ANL/Shutterstock

Jessie Buckley goes all out in pinstriped Schiaparelli with a fake moustache. Photo: Matt Baron/Rex/Shutterstock

Dakota Johnson with a twinning Jared Leto and Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele. Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images

Bella Hadid in a Burberry corset dress. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue 

Amber Valletta shines. Photo: David Fisher/Rex/Shutterstock

Ariana DeBose celebrates her Oscar win in Moschino. Photo: David Fisher/Rex/Shutterstock

I’m glad Kate Moss didn’t follow the crowd! The supermodel’s attire was a floor-length black gown by Burberry, accessorised with old-school understatement, with sheer black tights, heeled sandals and a red lip. That's my kind of beauty! 

Kate Moss: Back to black. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

McDonald's File 10 Trademarks for Metaverse

The world's largest fast-food restaurant chain want to establish a presence in the metaverse. 

McDonald's made 10 trademark applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office February 04 covering both McDonald's and McCafe. One of the trademarks was for "virtual food and beverage products" including NFTs, while another included "operating a virtual restaurant online featuring home delivery". Meaning users can walk in and order food – that will then be delivered to them in person and online. 

The trademarks would protect the idea of a McDonald's restaurant in the metaverse that can sell both virtual and real-world food, Josh Gerben, a trademark lawyer, wrote on Twitter. 

"You are hanging out in the metaverse and get hungry. You don't have to put down your headset. You walk into a McDonald's and place an order. It arrives at your door a little while later", he tweeted. 

It’s not just McDonald's but a number of other brands too are staking their claim to territory in the metaverse. 

Panera Bread filed for a trademark for a "Paneraverse" February 03 which includes NFTs, virtual entertainment services, and a virtual reward program. Nike have established a Metaverse Studio and have patented plans for virtual assets ranging from avatars to "cryptokicks", while Gucci, Crocs and others are also seeking staff to work on their metaverse offerings. 

For those who don’t know, the metaverse is an online world in which users' avatars meet, interact and explore a fast-growing network of virtual locations.

Facebook (now known as Meta) have already opened up its metaverse world, Horizon Worlds, and Microsoft plan to open up a metaverse version of their Teams app soon. 

Smaller companies can get in on the action too, by buying their own space on ready-made metaverse platforms such as Sandbox, Decentraland and Mirandus. Many are doing so now in order to stake their claim, before figuring out how to actually use this new technology for their benefit. 

At the moment the metaverse is mostly being used for gaming and socializing, as well as the odd work meeting. 

Metaverse's detractors claim it is no more than a marketing gimmick for many firms and say its useful applications are limited. 

Still, every brand that you can think will want to get into the metaverse anyway. I don’t think you can completely ignore a new technology that's coming.

Fashion Brands Give a Helping Hand

It’s nice to know that big-name fashion brands have stepped forward to give a helping hand in the fight to contain Covid-19. 

Prada, Gucci, COS, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent are among the many labels which produced face masks. 

Additionally, luxury group Kering purchased and imported masks to supply the French health service. 

Likewise, LVMH brought in surgical masks and FFP2 disposable particulate respirators from China to be distributed to medical workers. They even converted their factories, which usually manufacture perfumes under labels such as Givenchy and Guerlain, to the production of hand sanitizer. 

Moncler gave €10 million (£9.2 million) towards the construction of a 200-25-bed hospital in Milan, Italy. 

Mayhoola, the parent company of Valentino and Balmain, chipped in $2 million to the coronavirus effort. 

Giorgio Armani contributed $1.4 million to four of Italy’s busiest hospitals. 

Donatella Versace doled out more than $200,000 to the intensive care unit of Milan’s San Raffaele hospital. 

And Giorgio Armani donated $1.4 million to four of Italy’s busiest hospitals. 

I thought these are really wonderful gestures. 

As a way of saying thanks to these iconic fashion brands, I would like to share this clever commercial parody for a brilliant, but (hopefully) fictional one-of-a-kind luxury item, the Prada Body Bag:

Fashion that’s to die for! Definitely, the most elegant way to make a final impression! 

FYI, this video is by The Kloons, a threesome comprising Mitch Lewis, Greg Washburn and Nik Kazura, who creates comedy sketches for YouTube.

Blackface Backlash

Luxury fashion brand Gucci has withdrawn a woollen jumper from sale after the item was criticized for "resembling blackface".

The black "balaclava jumper" covered the lower half of the face and featured a red cut-out around the mouth. 

The item quickly prompted a backlash on social media by users who alleged the design was offensive. 

In a statement, Gucci apologized for any offence caused and said it would be removed from sale. 

The brand said it would turn the incident "into a powerful learning moment for the Gucci team" and was committed to increasing diversity. 

That is the common refrain for brands which have become entrapped by their own self-inflicted foolishness. 

Blackface has a history of perpetuating offensive and racist stereotypes of African Americans dating back more than 200 years in the United States. On social media, many had criticized the design for invoking such stereotypes. 

Gucci's troubles mark the latest in a string of missteps by luxury fashion brands. 

Last month, Prada withdrew items over concerns it had depicted blackface imagery. 

The label pulled products from a line of goods called Pradamalia which appeared to resemble black monkeys with large red lips. 

In 2016, Dolce & Gabbana caused controversy when they called an item of footwear in their spring/summer collection a "slave sandal".

Accusations of racism via Twitter were lobbed at Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana – that the duo were glorifying slavery.

When I consider the above, it makes me wonder that just maybe, there are brands that are intentionally using race to capture people's attention. 

Paul MacKenzie-Cummins, managing director of Clearly PR Marketing and Communications has this to say: "It's an ultra-competitive market and the retail space has never been as competitive as what it is now. They need to do something to get their voices seen and heard".

Whether this is true or not, the fact of the matter is that we should be sensitive to things regarded as demeaning and dehumanizing to others. 

Sneakers that Marry Fashion with Sports

A model presents a creation from the Dolce & Gabbana Autumn/Winter 2018 women collection during Milan Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, February 25, 2018

Luxury fashion and sports are coming together. And it looks as if they have become inseparable. 

Strange bedfellows alright but it is the in-thing now. And yielding big profits for those involved in the business. Already, both luxury groups and sports companies are looking to cash in on a booming market. 

Premium sneakers can start at around $400 but can easily go up as high as $3,000 for a pair of Christian Louboutin’s leather, crystal-embellished sneakers. 

And limited editions can even sell for well over $10,000, including the Chanel X Pharrell Hu Race Trail or Nike’s Air Jordan 3 Retro DJ Khaled Grateful. 

High-end brands such as Gucci, Prada and Balenciaga are increasingly looking to sneakers for growth, putting them in direct competition with sportswear giants like Nike, Puma and Adidas – and creating ever-more striking and swank designs. 

A Reuters report put global sales of sneakers – or trainers – to have expanded by 10 percent to 3.5 billion euros in 2017. 

For sure, sneakers are a big driver of the luxury shoe business – in fact, luxury sneakers represent the fashion industry’s fastest-growing segment. 

Bruce Pas, Men’s Fashion Director at US department store Neiman Marcus – a leading purveyor of the world's most unique luxury goods – trumpets: “It’s not really even a trend anymore – it’s become a category”. 

The rise of luxury sneakers is part of the growing influence of casual and streetwear in high-end fashion, where it is now acceptable to team sneakers with a tailored suit. 

Upmarket brands are tapping into street style to refresh their looks and young buyers are driving the shift. “Millennials” – born between the early 1980s and mid-90s – already represent a third of the luxury market, according to consultancy Bain & Co. 

It has been noted that even with intensifying competition, profits will remain very healthy. 

“There is (a) large space for prices moving up”, said Erwan Rambourg from HSBC. It seems that the ‘luxurization’ of sneakers can only impact margins positively. 

Designer footwear or luxury sneakers or couture sneakers or whatever we may wish to call them – they are a fast-growing market segment. 

Even for sportswear companies, like Adidas, fashion collaborations are not unusual. 

In fact, Adidas recognize that it is a way of expanding their company’s creative ecosystem and keeping consumers engaged and excited by the Adidas brand in a fast-moving market. “These days the pace has become so fast. People go to verticals, like H&M and Zara, and expect new products every month. Even with high fashion labels, it’s the cruise collection and pre-collections; every three months you get something new”, said Dirk Schönberger, creative director of Adidas’ sport style division. 

“We are a very commercial brand, so, of course, we have to deliver – at a minimum every week – something that excites the consumer. The verticals and the [speed of the] Internet have changed the way we do things”, he added. 

When a market opportunity presents itself, you can be sure marketing-driven companies will be in the thick of the action. It’s business, after all!

Gucci Paper Offerings

A store selling paper replicas of items used as offerings for deceased relatives and displaying paper luxury bags in Hong Kong, on April 29, 2016. Photo: AFP

A handbag paper offering bearing a logo similar to Gucci's. Photo: Apple Daily

Gucci has sent legal letters to Hong Kong shops selling paper replicas of its products as offerings to the dead.

 

According to Hong Kong Free Press, citing Apple Daily, the Italian luxury goods maker stated the said items bearing similar logos were a copyright violation.

 

Still, the shopkeepers need not be worried. In a statement to the BBC, Gucci Hong Kong said there were no plans to take legal action because they “respect the funeral context” and that the shore owners did not have the intention to infringe Gucci’s trademark.

 

Gucci had explained: “Thus a letter was sent on an informational basis to let these stores know about the products they were carrying, and by asking them to stop selling those items.”

 

Paper offerings that resemble everyday items like mansions, cars, iPads and luxury bags are burnt in Chinese culture because it is believed the dead can use them in the afterlife.

 

HKFP had pointed out that Gucci’s hands are tied anyway. In a 2011 case, papier-mâché offering businesses were sued in Chinatown, Manhattan in New York City, USA for copyright violation after they distributed paper replicas of Gucci products. The court eventually ruled that the businesses were not guilty on the grounds that paper offerings were a part of Asian culture.

 

Naturally, Hong Kong residents have reacted with their usual acerbic wit on social media.

 

The BBC quoted a Facebook user called Vincent Charles as saying, “Does Gucci want to open branches in the underworld?” while another by the name of Sammi Ng said: “Maybe Gucci should launch their own paper offering products.”

 

Swansea City beat Liverpool 3-1 in today's EPL match. The Reds’ only goal came from Christian Benteke in the sixty-fifth minute.

 

Jurgen Klopp had made eight changes as he fielded his youngest starting XI in the Premier League era with an average age of 23 years 218 days. The European commitments must have weighed heavily on his mind – hence this experimental side.

A day earlier, in the Scottish Premiership, Celtic defeated Hearts 3-1.

Colin Kazim-Richards opened the scoring for the former in the seventeenth minute and then Abiola Dauda levelled in the fifty-seventh minute. Patrick Roberts (66) and then Leigh Griffiths (85) won the game for Celtic.