Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Louis Vuitton: Handbag or instant fashion makeover?

So there is a recurring trend here in Dallas that I felt obligated to write about. It's less about a trend and more about a status symbol or a disease aptly designated as extravagance. It's sort of like a spending spree, followed by bad credit and the repo man, threw up all over Dallas. You'll pass one car on the street and it's a Lexus. The next one will be a Cadillac. The next a Carrera Porsche. The next a BMW... Bentley... you get the idea. Tuesday nights on McKinney, you'll probably even see a Lamborghini. The same goes for the styles of the Louis.

The Louis I speak of is Louis Vuitton, but more specifically, Georges Vuitton, who is Louis' son and the jokester behind the famous monogrammed bags and leather goods so many people own today. The great part is that Wikipedia tells me that just over ONE PERCENT of Louis Vuitton signature goods are NOT counterfeit. Now I know why they all appear to be constructed from textured brown plastic.

Here is what bothers me beyond the fact that the most inexpensive bag they offer still costs about $500 and is the size of a cigarette case: It is the idea that if you carry a Louis bag, it apparently does not matter what you are wearing. It's like the bag is some sort of a magical fashionista cloak (a la Harry Potter's invisibility cloak) that transforms you from dumpy and mismatched to chic and glamorous. I have yet to see a woman put together an outfit that looks good with the bag. I saw a woman at the mall wearing army green capris, a faded black fitted t-shirt, flip-flops, and a like a giant bucket LV bag. Am I supposed to be impressed?

I think that the brains behind Louis Vuitton are disturbingly marketing-savvy and have wicked senses of humor. "Hey, Walter, how do you think we can get women all over the world to buy these grossly overpriced and hideous bags?" "Well, Marie, let's start giving them away to quasi-famous fashion whores and see where that gets us. I hear Jessica Simpson has a new reality show on MTV... we should probably give her a complete set of luggage immediately, if not sooner." "But what if she ruins it, Walter?" "It's ok. We'll give her the counterfeit ones from our factory in Kazakhstan." (insert evil, maniacal laughter)

My advice is save your precious dollars for bags, shoes, designer jeans (guilty!), and whatever else your precious heart desires. If you have Paris Hilton's money, buy every Louis bag that exists, or better yet... have Paris' money, get famous for no reason, and have the bags given to you free of cost, even though you have more money than God. If you don't have the endless supply of money, buy numerous leathery-smelling Coach or Dooney (but not the ones that look like Skittles melted on a styrofoam plate) or Michael Kors or whoever's bags instead of one LV bag that will only hold the trial size of your lip gloss. I personally heart the one at right and my birthday is coming up...

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

HAHA! You see how many people have one of these in the 505! They think they're living in New York or Paris or something! And these are the same ladies who have the spinner hubcaps on their neons! Priceless!

Anonymous said...

When we are there visiting for our b-days, try and control yourself and not steal Ali's LV bag.
Maybe you could ask her to borrow if and see if you feel any different carrying it.

MandaLB99 said...

You know, I thought I would experience the same phenomenon when I got to DC. But girls here are actually somewhat conservative with their handbags. The popular bag here is the Long Champ tote. Which I admittedly carry. But in my defense I will say this. While yes, like the Louis the Long Champ is French it is more affordable then the Louis, it is nylon and can be washed AND it very roomy. At any given point in time I can carry all of the following: My lunch (usually something frozen made by the incredible chefs at Lean Cuisine), a cardigan, sunglasses, makeup bag, palm pilot, Sidekick, two DVDs, and my Nalgene water bottle.

Sarah said...

Amanda, I doubt you view your tote as an all-encompassing fashion makeover, so you're in the clear. I was actually thinking that you're probably the one person who could rock the LV bags properly since you have a vast array of brown hues in your wardrobe...

I will try to control my urge to steal Alli's bag, Eve... I can't make any promises, though, because I am a kleptomaniac. ;o)

Spinners on Neons... that is so 505! I love it.

Anonymous said...

I thought the same thing about all the cars here in LA. I think the difference is you occasionally see a porsche in NM, whereas out here its the run of the mill. One person down the block parks his ferrari on the street at night even though he has a two car garage....Which really makes me wonder whats in the garage or how pissed is his wife that he bought a ferrari?

Anonymous said...

It's more then likely what he doesn't have in terms of manhood that she's probably pissed about! The ferrari was just a cover up!

Anonymous said...

Please dont cite me for breaking-and-entering over here, but I'd be completely remiss if I didn't point this out:
However silly you think this is, multiply it by 100, clone it and make it reproduce with a rabbit. That's how crazy a guy thinks this handbag business is.
In fact, the only part I like is that when you combine the words 'Coach' and 'Gucci,' I giggle.

Sarah said...

Hey boys, way to turn a diatribe about handbags into a conversation about cars. You all never cease to amaze me.

Although it does bring to mind the idea that I should ditch my aspirations to work in media and just become a car saleswoman in Dallas. I could make bank!

Anonymous said...

Its a defensive mechanism, otherwise many hours of our lives could be wasted on topics as "Is Ivory or Pearl a better color?", "What should I wear tonight?", "Look at this bag?".

Sarah said...

I spend many hours of my life contemplating those very things, BT! What are you trying to say? That I'm wasting my time? ;o)

Being female is not easy, you know. It requires well thought out social strategies and outfit planning... among other things.

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