HEAVY WEIGHTS
The new bag is breaking out, and it’s big, bold and adventurous. Super-sized is smashing it.
The new bag is breaking out, and it’s big, bold and adventurous. Super-sized is smashing it. Styled by Jillian Davison. Photographed by Simon Eeles.
Pretty little things. Such was the descriptor given to bags once upon a time. Phalanxes of well-heeled women heading out into the night would clutch filigreed dainties no bigger than the size of their palms that – often sparkling, burnished in metals or granular beading – would be treated like jewels. These accoutrements fitted little other than a lipstick and a compact, at times affording women the one thing that wasn’t in there to keep their maquillage immaculate – a cigarette case. Thank goodness for the minds enlarging their creative impulses into the bag offerings this season. Expansively sized, XXL- to sumosized renditions of the carryall are signalling a shift in how the fashion establishment acknowledges practicality. For pre-fall there they were at Proenza Schouler, as a trapezoidal sling bag that could almost fit a load of washing; then at Jil Sander, with a beach-towelsized canvas tote that could make a meeting or the market; and at Bottega Veneta, with its new blown-up Cabat. They picked up where the roomy totes of spring/summer ’19 left off at Burberry, Tom Ford, Stella McCartney and Gucci, which between them offered canvas, leather and suede iterations of doctor’s, weekender and day bags.
And while totes are a seasoned staple, Cassie Smart, head of womenswear at Matches Fashion, has seen a significant uptick in oversized bags. “The buy on XXL bags has grown over 1,000 per cent, with more brands than ever offering oversized bags at various price point and fabrications,” she says, pointing to the tote’s rise in popularity owing to its physical presence, which she says makes “waves in a sea of tiny accessories”.
Indeed Simon Porte Jacquemus, the designer responsible for a scoffably small six-centimetre mini-bag a season earlier, has slid to the opposite end of the scale with his Le Grand Baci, a raffia beach bag as big as a car door. According to global fashion platform Lyst, the debut of the bag drove a 35 per cent increase in traffic to Jacquemus’s website. Pushing the eye so hard creates the feeling that these blown-up proportions are underlining then bolding a desire for practicality.
Take Daniel Lee’s gutsy reworking of Bottega Veneta’s Cabat for prefall, his first season as the Italian house’s new creative director. The intrecciato woven signature was taken to a more robust size; the fettuce strips were a sumptuous four centimetres wide. That Daniel Lee would rework the label’s waitlisted Cabat bags, a tent-pole product, shows a designer betting that women want more room in their lives.
“It speaks to the busy pace of women’s lifestyles and the blend of statement pieces and practicality,” notes Smart. “Women need to be fully prepared for what their day may bring.” It is refusing to play to old types – leaving the house with everything we could possibly need for the day in a minaudière the size of a playing card – and an open acknowledgement of the many roles women play today. We are staying in the one spot less and less, or staying out of the house more and more, and performing multiple tasks while we’re at it.
Morgane LeCaer, fashion insights reporter at Lyst, sees oversized accessories as a sound next purchase. “As demand for a more sustainable fashion industry continues to rise, environmentally friendly raffia bags like Jacquemus’s or Loewe’s woven totes would make for perfect investment pieces.” She also points to “trophy totes” from independent labels such as Mansur Gavriel and Wandler as solid choices for practical but well-made accessories. The message is writ large: what women are aiming for now is to have it all, and then a bag big enough to fit it in. Alice Birrell