Is this bag worth $1million?
Thought quiet luxury was the trend of the moment? On the flipside is a return to logo-heavy designer bags with outrageous price tags, leaving many to ask...
During the early 2000s, designer bags were a visible badge of affluence and symbolic of conspicuous consumption. Sported by women of all ages and social backgrounds, owning ‘It bags’ became a competitive sport with constant ‘must have’ designs with prominent logos. While the crash led to many women selling their bags out of necessity and swearing off designer labels, predictions of their demise were premature.
As Ireland has recovered economically and approached full employment again, branded bags are very visibly draped over manicured arms again. To add to the hype, singer Pharrell Williams, Louis Vuitton’s newly appointed creative director of menswear, launched a $1 million version of the French brand’s iconic Speedy bag in its Spring Summer 2024 collection.
How could any bag merit a price tag of $1 million?
Well, the Williams bag is handmade from crocodile leather, emblazoned with the brand’s signature monogram, and features a pavé diamond-encrusted Vuitton lock and a chain strap crafted from yellow gold. Dubbed the ‘Millionaire’, it is available strictly on a made-to-order basis and will be a litmus test for how much the
1 per cent are willing to splash out in search of exclusive luxury.
To date, LeBron James has been spotted with the design and Rihanna has helmed the advertising campaign. The bag has been criticised as offensive and insensitive but has also been a potent marketing tool, gaining headlines globally for its elevated price. Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of LVMH, famously failed in a hostile takeover of Hermès back in 2011 and he is now apparently positioning Louis Vuitton as its prime rival.
Shockingly, this bag is not the world’s most expensive. That distinction goes to a one-off bag made from a real emu egg encased in gold and enamel, featuring 8,000 diamonds and Cartier earrings as a clasp. Created by Debbie Wingham for an anonymous New York client using items upcycled from their own closet, it took over three months to make and is valued at a stratospheric $6.7 million. Coming in next is Lebanese jeweller Mouawad’s 1001 nights diamond purse, valued at $3.8 million, made from 18-carat gold and 4,517 diamonds by 10 artisans. In third place is the Hermès
Sac Bijou Birkin in solid rose gold with 1,160 diamonds created by jeweller Pierre Hardy and valued at $2 million. Placing fourth is another Hermès bag, a Birkin by Ginza Tanaka made from platinum and featuring 2,182 diamonds, valued at $1.9 million. Then in fifth place comes the Williams bag.
‘I think this is another case of a brand attracting attention and creating a buzz about something new,’ Silvana Landa of sustainable Irish/Italian/Argentine bag brand Landa says of the Millionaire. ‘It’s like when Jacquemus created the tiny bag that just fits lipstick. A person that can afford a €1 million bag is the one buying yachts and Lamborghini cars. It’s a niche, but while only a few
will buy, the brand gets all the attention. ‘Some consumers will buy an extremely expensive watch or handbag because they feel these are more unique or authentic. But I think the customer shopping for this Pharell Williams bag is not after authenticity. It’s a different product geared towards a different customer. It’s hard to think that someone would spend €1 million on a bag – with everything that’s going on in the world, it’s nearly insensitive. But the same can be said about outrageously high-end homes, cars, private jets, etc. It’s a different market.’
However, for some, bags are all about the logo. In the UK, the handbag market is worth in excess of £1 billion annually, while the global handbag market peaked just shy of $60 billion in 2017. Despite war, global warming, the widening wealth gap and the rise of quiet luxury, women are still fascinated by
‘BIRKINS ARE LIKE CURRENCY, YOU CAN CASH THEM OUT ANY TIME’
designer bags, particularly the luxury titans Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Hermès.
At its most extreme, the female fetish for bags has led Japanese girls to prostitution to pay for luxury brands and other women regularly maxing out credit cards for the thrill of a famous logo. Even while they struggle to buy a home, both Millennials and Gen Z are spending large chunks of their income on designer goods, particularly luxury bags. Between now and 2029, growth in bags globally is predicted to hit a rate of 8.2 per cent to a value of $42.48 billion.
So why the obsession with handbags? They strike a deeply emotive chord with women – they semaphore your good taste, level of affluence and even aspirations. A handbag expresses your style personality vividly. A classic luxury lover may wear Chanel, a discrete lover of understated quality Hermès and a bohemian free spirit Isabel Marant. Even those who aren’t that interested in fashion will carry a
statement designer bag. In short, bags don’t just hold our mundane stuff, they also have the ability to make us feel exquisitely, irrationally happy. The designer bag market, like many things, has consolidated at two extremities – at one, masstige brands like Michael Kors have saturated the market with heavily branded designs and at the other, Hermès has tightly limited production to affirm its credentials as purveyor of the most desirable bags.
The 20th century saw the birth of the designer bag, when luxury brands established their signature styles. In the 1930s, Robert Dumas of Hermès designed a minimal handbag that from 1956 on became known as the Kelly after Grace Kelly was papped with one. In 1947, Gucci put the first bamboo handle on a bag and in 1955 Chanel produced its first quilted 2.55 bag.
While many women’s accessories such as hats and gloves disappeared in the disruptive 1960s, the bag endured. As the career woman appeared in the 1980s, Chanel cleverly relaunched its 2.55 under Karl Lagerfeld, who put the Chanel monogram on the bag clasp, an act of marketing genius.
In the 1990s, Prada ushered in the democratisation of luxury with its nylon backpack. It was a cool, minimal, modern bag for a designconscious generation that was affordable. The success of the backpack generated huge revenues for Prada and transformed it into a major fashion house.
Later that decade, the baguette bag transformed Fendi from a fusty Italian furrier into a major luxury player, selling over 100,000 units in its first year. As the 1990s progressed, logo mania peaked with emblems such as Chanel’s interlocked Cs, Gucci’s linked Gs and the Louis
Vuitton monogram. Bling and bad design resulted in some very ugly bags until the 2008 crash heralded the death of the It bag.
That demise was short lived as luxury bags have returned with a vengeance. As prices have escalated to ‘crazy’ levels, many women are seeing them as investments which they can liquidate for a healthy profit. Bags that are highly desirable as an investment are the Chanel 2.55, the Louis Vuitton Speedy, the Jackie O Hobo from Gucci and the Hermès Birkin and Kelly.
Handbags are the financial foundation of the luxury goods industry, representing approximately 30 per cent of total sales. They sell more easily than clothes, enjoy extremely high full-priced sellthrough rates and are simpler to develop than perfumes. For customers they endure beyond single season trends, never need to
be tried on and give satisfying returns on a cost per wear basis.
Bags now form the foundation of most luxury goods brands – the clothes are the window dressing, and the accessories, cosmetics and perfumes deliver the highest profitability. The profit margins of designer bags are astounding – generally priced between 10 to 12 times the manufacturing cost, Louis Vuitton even manages to sell its bags at 13 times the cost price. It is easy to see therefore why an It bag can have such a profound impact on the financial fortunes of a company.
Since 2000, auction house Christie’s has been hosting twiceyearly handbag events in Hong
Kong due to demand for elusive styles, particularly Hermès Birkin and Kelly. As one collector, Emily Chan, who has more than 50 bags stated: ‘Birkins are like currency, you can cash them out at any time.’
Birkins have climbed in value by over 500 per cent in the past 40 years and are projected to double in value to exceed art, gold or even property as an investment.
Chanel’s iconic flap bag has doubled in price in the last decade and continues to rise.
To realise a profit on the resale market, bags must be in mint condition, and be an iconic design from a covetable brand like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermes or Gucci. Hermès remains the Rolls Royce of bags, as it has graced royalty, celebrities and the super-rich for decades. The zenith of investment bags remains the Hermes Birkin: in 2022, a pre-loved Hermès Birkin matte Himalayan bag with white gold fittings and almost 10 carats of diamonds made $450,000.
The Birkin is the most Googled bag by search volume. Kim Kardashian, her sister Kylie Jenner and their momager Kris all own the luxury Himalayan bag and no doubt their ownership has introduced Hermès to a younger global audience. Cardi B is reported to have gifted her five-year-old daughter Kulture a pink Birkin for her birthday while Victoria Beckham has over 100 Birkins.
In Dublin, the appeal of designer bags is evident in the floor space devoted to them in Brown Thomas, which boasts a large luxury bag department containing concessions from Chanel, Hermès, Prada,
Bottega Veneta, Gucci and
Louis Vuitton.
Currently, there are just shy of 2,000 styles on offer for sale on brownthomas.com. Around the corner, consignment retailer Siopella also does a very brisk trade as a reseller of designer bag brands. It is extremely vigilant about the issue of authenticity and all stock is verified by Ella de Guzman, the owner and head authenticator.
Ella says she sees people every day coming to her with fake bags.
‘At the end of the day, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is,’ she says. ‘Be really careful where you’re shopping from.’
‘Everyone keeps talking about this recession that’s coming up but it’s not going to affect those who have disposable income to purchase designer bags – it never has, not in my experience over the past 13 years doing this. If you have a black Birkin bag with gold hardware, you’re going to sell it.
‘Now saying that, if you look at the Himalayan Birkin, they’re selling for $300,000,
‘Any of our really high-end bags have gone elsewhere – they haven’t sold in the country. A lot of our bags would go to the US, we just don’t have that market. I think we’d like to think we do but I have never seen anyone walking around with a Himalayan Birkin in Dublin city centre. We’re not that showy, our culture isn’t like that. I don’t think we’re a showy culture in that respect.’
The most recent high-end bag she sold, a navy Birkin 25, went to Germany. She also says Siopaella sells mostly Louis Vuitton and Chanel bags, ‘more so than Hermes because people aren’t as attracted to them as you think they would be’.
As to the continued demand for designer bags, Ella says, ‘It’s still thriving, it’s still strong. Our revenue keeps improving year after year.’
Whether the love affair with designer bags endures long-term is not guaranteed, but what is probable for now is that women will continue to covet them, brands will make eye-watering profits from them, and they will make female hearts beat ever faster. Designer bags like the Pharrell Wiliams LV Millionaire are proverbial gold for luxury brands.
‘THE IRISH DESIGNER BAG MARKET IS STILL STRONG’
Did you know it’s nearly been one year since ChatGPT first launched? In that time, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has become quite the global sensation. Even if you call yourself a tech luddite, it seems like you can’t escape it. But you might find that between work, kids and life’s daily demands, you haven’t had a chance to try ChatGPT out yourself yet?
The good news is that getting started with AI is much easier than you probably think – and cheaper. Signing up for one of the paid premium AI programmes might be out of reach of most budgets, especially with Christmas coming, but did you know there are free options available to start exploring this technology? Here are some worth checking out...
CHATGPT.COM
ChatGPT itself offers a limited free version (Version 3.5) that allows you to ask questions and get it to do things. While not as robust as the paid version, it’s a great starting point to learn how ChatGPT works, and you will get great fun out of it. You don’t need to input any payment information to create an account. You just need to sign up using your email address.
BING.COM
If you’re on a PC, you can access Bing through the Edge browser. Just type in bing.com and it’ll open up a chatbox. The great thing about accessing Bing in this way that not a lot of people know is that when you select the ‘creative’ option, you’re actually using ChatGPT4 for free.
CLAUDE2
Another free option and one that gives you lots more juice is Claude2. Recently launched in Ireland, it comes from a company called Anthropic, which is very aware of security, ethics and being safe around AI use.
SOME FUN PROMPTS TO GET YOU STARTED
Let’s face it, learning new technology can be daunting. But AI systems are designed to be conversational, so don’t be afraid to just start chatting. Ask questions just like you would ask a friend. Say you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to learn a new program for work. The AI can simplify things and provide easy step-by-step instructions. Some of my favourite prompts that you might like to try are:
* ‘Make me a meal planner for four people, one picky eater, one who doesn’t like aubergine. Leaning towards vegetarian, but we still eat meat. Give this to me as a table and with a shopping list of ingredients in metric below.’ When you get the first result, if you don’t like any of the suggestions, just ask it to remove and suggest alternatives.
* Love to read books? Try this one – give it a list of your five all-time