Beauty

…It was like I was nailed to the floor. She is divine. Impossibly great. Delicate calfskin is softer than butter. The angel is masterfully hand-painted with a thin brush, in azure tones. And under it, a name is laid out with rhinestones — Dante.

This is how the heroine of a series of books by Sophie Kinsella about the Shopaholic describes her condition at the sight of the «angel’s handbag». And, we dare to assure you, there are hundreds of girls in the world who fall into a kind of trance at the sight of a fashionable handbag. For example, Victoria Beckham has more than a hundred Birkin handbags in her arsenal, each of which costs from 6 to 10 thousand pounds. And until the moment when Victoria herself began to develop models of bags and clothes under her own name, she did not plan to stop collecting Birkin.

Birkin class bags are status accessories, and they are not always available on demand. The release of new models is eagerly awaited in different parts of the world, queues line up behind them, and the level of popularity of the customer does not matter: you have to wait for the desired acquisition on a common basis. Such bags form trends in cinema and literature and become no less significant heroines of films and books than the girls who wear them.

in the cult series

Carrie Bradshaw, starring in the cult TV series Sex and the City, is probably the most popular movie fashionista of all time. Carrie has her own style, she often looks provocative. It can be assumed that any other girl in the same image would look ridiculous, but … not Carrie, in whose costumes every detail is thought out. The handbags with which the heroine appears on the screen are exclusively branded: Gucci, Hermes Birkin, Bulgari, Fendi, Chloe. It was thanks to Carrie that the small Baguette clutch bag became mega-popular in the late 90s. The design of the handbag from Fendi with a short handle and a clasp in the form of the brand’s logo was invented by Silvia Venturini Fendi. Baguette handbag after its appearance on the screen became insanely popular, and the company instantly inflated prices for it. For Fendi, this handbag has become almost a «gold mine»: since the first show of the series, the model has been reissued more than 700 times in different styles, changing decor and fabrics, but retaining its original shape.

In a fashion film about fashion

In the mid-2000s, fashionistas were struck by a transforming bag from the movie The Devil Wears Prada. It is worth noting that this film as a whole can be called a ready-made guide for those who are looking for their own style. The La Rue transforming bag for Anne Hathaway was designed by the same Patricia Field, who once designed the costumes and accessories for the TV series Sex and the City. The La Rue bag (which means «street» in French) with a round hole in the upper part can be worn on a long belt, simply put on the shoulder, putting your hand through the hole, or taken folded in half as a clutch. La Rue has become so popular that numerous blogs on the Internet are full of patterns and instructions for sewing it yourself. And Meryl Streep in the same film appears with a bag from Prada, which they called Devil Wears Prada, and sales of which skyrocketed after the premiere to an incredible pace. By the way, Patricia Field won the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design for The Devil Wears Prada and was twice nominated for an Oscar.

In the retro past and in reality shows

There are also older examples of cases where an accessory was in the center of attention of moviegoers. In 1932, the world saw the Speedy handbag from Louis Vuitton. By this time, the brand was already known as a manufacturer of luxury luggage bags, and even then it was extremely prestigious to have a Louis Vuitton bag. But real popularity came to Louis Vuitton bags in the 60s, when movie star Audrey Hepburn appeared with a Speedy handbag in the movie Charade. A 30 cm mini version of the original luggage bag, this model was made especially for Audrey and is 5 cm smaller than the standard version. Today, the Speedy line from Louis Vuitton includes models with a length of 25, 30, 35, and 40 cm. According to some reports, this particular bag remains the most counterfeited in the world.

But it’s not Louis Vuitton’s only movie star bag. Jessica Simpson wears a Louis Vuitton Murakami bag on MTV’s reality show Honeymooners: Nick & Jessica. The TV show lasted 4 seasons, from 2003 to 2005, during which time the bag entered the category of it-bags. The term, which came into use with the light hand of fashion glossy publishers, refers to branded bags of famous design houses that have become iconic for their time.

… And on the pages of novels

And in literature, perhaps the most coveted version of the bag can be called the handbag of Hermione Granger, the heroine of the JK Rowling series of Harry Potter novels. Hermione’s small, almost weightless evening clutch is nothing more than a repository of the most unpredictable, and most importantly, not at all small things. With a skillfully cast spell in a clutch, you can find a tent with sleeping places, books, a radio, and many other useful things. Probably, there is no girl in the world who would become the owner of such a treasure.

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