How designer purses become the latest “It" bag

Have you ever wondered how a new designer handbag becomes the "It" style of the moment? We'll give you a hint: it's not a coincidence. The Fendi Spy bag, Alexander Wang Rocco bag, YSL Muse bag, Louis Vuitton Speedy bag, Chanel 2.55 bag, Dior Saddle bag, Balenciaga City bag, Hermes Birkin bag, Marc Jacobs Stam bag, Prada Gauffre bag, Alexander McQueen Novak bag, and Chloe Paddington bag are just some of the popular "It" bags from over the past decade. You may not know them by name, but if you read fashion magazines or celebrity blogs you've seen them all many times. Bottega Veneta designer Tomas Maier recently explained to the New Yorker just how these purses came to be so coveted.

"You make a bag, you put all the components in it that you think could work, you send it out to a couple of celebrities, you get the paparazzi to shoot just when they walk out of their house," Maier told the New Yorker. "You sell that to the cheap tabloids, and you say in a magazine that there's a waiting list. And you run an ad campaign at the same time. I don't believe that's how you make something that's lasting-that becomes iconic as a design."

So in other words, companies pimp out their designs and give them away to celebs and editors who will then say how awesome and in-demand they are and force them down people's throats and until everyone wants one. Or as Maier puts it bluntly, "The It Bag is a totally marketed bulls--- crap."

Not for nothing, but Bottega Veneta's signature woven leather bags (pictured at right) are pretty status-y themselves, and if Maier wanted to, say, send us one, we'd totally tell you guys about how AMAZING and ULTRA-EXCLUSIVE they are, especially IN THIS SEASON'S POPULAR CORAL SHADE, and how OMG KATIE HOLMES IS USING ONE AS A DIAPER BAG, and that YOU'LL TOTALLY BE UNSTYLISH if you don't GO OUT AND BUY ONE RIGHT NOW! Just kidding.

How about people just buy bags they actually really like that are in their budget. That sounds like a nice idea. [New Yorker]

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