Anything but a bag: how far will it go before we ditch the accessory for good?
There was always going to be a moment where luxury had to delve into low culture for new ideas — diamonds one day and solid gold the next; that kind of thing. Turns out, what fashion needed was an overhaul of the conventional bag, and in this case it was a 3D resin pigeon clutch with beady eyes, and a compartment you enter through its right wing, which holds maximum 3 items at a time. JW Anderson made it happen back during his FW22 collection that was unveiled in January, and turned the page to odd little objects becoming the big new thing.
The pigeon bag then went viral after it was recently spotted on Carrie Bradshaw in the new HBO series And Just Like That…, following Sarah Jessica Parker’s beloved character through her journey as New York’s favourite fashion writer. Her Instagram boasted sneak peeks behind the scenes of the new season, with the little bird bag sat next to her Fendi ankle bag, an experiment in how many unconventional methods of carrying Carrie can get away with. The bag was also seen on the likes of Sam Smith, who named theirs Martin, and clutched the pigeon on the front row of the Harris Reed show at LFW.
JW Anderson credits his inspiration to the simplicity of the metropolitan creature, saying to Vogue that “pigeons are a part of our landscape. In a weird way, by turning one into a clutch, you take something which is not glamorous and make it glamorous.” Who better to blow it up than Carrie Bradshaw, the queen of glamour and questionable choices in accessories. Since her Judith Leiber diamond-encrusted swan bag outrage when Big confessed his feelings for her in season 2, it’s evident that she can’t help but return to winged accessories.
Novelty bags have been around for a while now, and it’s a surrealist’s dream come true that they are beginning to hit the mainstream. Judith Leiber has always done wacky bags justice, bejewelling the likes of dachshunds, pina coladas, goldfish and a bunch of asparagus. Thom Browne remains understated with black calfskin creations of rats, dogs, and everything in between. Then we have the bags of Moschino, whose marriage to novelty is famous for its tacky sweetness, with the brand’s colourful alarm clocks, champagne buckets and of course, french fries. All of the designs had some form of an appreciative audience, and equal amounts of hate for its distaste.
Why are we now paying attention and beginning to start using anything but a conventional bag? Perhaps the interest is down to escapism from the realms of lockdown, encouraging us to embracing the weirdest accessories on the market. Someone experimenting with this trend before it hit the luxury sphere was content creator and designer Myra Magdalen, who splits audiences on her maximalist camp outfits, and is well-versed in sporting avant garde items. With a TikTok that has amassed 400k followers for her looks, she sculpts a hole into the body of a hollow plastic garden goose to hold her things, and straps the decapitated head of some to her chest. It doesn’t just stop at birds, though, as the creative chops of the heads of her stuffed lambs, and is setting the standards for where the weirdness can truly go: think keyboards, fish tanks, ragged teddy bears, robotic caterpillars and drainpipes.
So, if you don’t fancy forking out £650 for JW Anderson’s cooing clutch, hold onto your garden gnomes and childhood teddy bears, they could be the height of luxury in no time at all.
