For Designers Today, Success Is in the Bag

The hand bag make me impressed today, so I would like to share you something about handbags.
As more and more women began to dress casually, they realized they needed an accessory to emphasize their wealth and status. Shoes can be uncomfortable or impractical, jewelry too flashy or too tempting to thieves, but a $1,000 bag from Gucci or Chanel sends a simple but clear message to salespeople, waiters, hotel clerks, and others that the woman standing before them in battered jeans and a frayed shirt not only has good taste, but the means to indulge it.
The apotheosis of the handbag is still fairly recent. To be sure, well-heeled women have been buying smart bags for day and evening wear for generations, but it was usually an afterthought in terms of a designer's business—a side dish to the main meal of apparel and shoes. But as women became not only more casual in their dress, but more affluent, the bag took on increased importance in a wardrobe.
At the beginning of the 1990s there were only a handful of well-known upmarket handbag designers (Louis Vuitton (LVMH), Fendi, and Hermès), many of which were European companies with a history of making quality leather goods. Since then, the handbag business has exploded, generating more than $1 billion in sales per year. After perfume, bags are one of the most profitable products in the fashion business, and there is scarcely a big-name designer who hasn't added handbags to his or her portfolio. For example, London shoe designer Jimmy Choo shifted his attention from shoes to create his Ramona bag, which was one of the biggest sellers of 2007.
WATCHING STARS AND TRENDS
The popularity of handbags has been helped by their association with celebrities. A photo of Lindsay Lohan toting around a Balenciaga Motorcyle bag or Paris Hilton carrying a Fendi Zucca shoulder purse is money in the bank for the designers. "Celebrities are great contributors to the handbag business," says Rae Ann Herman, accessories director for Glamour. The handbag "is a status symbol. Ultimately, girls and women alike are drawn to these glamorous lifestyles and try to mimic what they see in entertainment magazines."
But one Victoria Beckham here and a couple of Olsen twins there are not all that pushed the handbag business to its dizzying new heights. Beth Boyle, of Port Washington (N.Y.) retail analyst NPD Group, says simple trends play a huge factor in rising handbag sales. "One of the biggest trends of 2006/2007 was the oversized handbag. Often you saw people carrying larger luxury bags that could easily substitute for everyday totes." In other words, the handbag became more practical. No longer a tiny space to keep your cell phone, keys, lipstick and—if you were lucky—your wallet, the oversized trend meant one bag could fit everything from the daily essentials to an iPod and even a laptop. Herman agrees, "The oversized trend appeals to a lot of different lifestyles. [You] see moms carrying large bags to school to pick up their kids, but you also see businesswomen and attorneys taking them to work."