First they were spotted in Milan, swinging down the chic Via
Montenapoleone over the shoulders of the city`s well-heeled and well-bred set. Then it was London, where they popped up on Bond Street and trendy Beauchamp Place, carried on the expensive, lanky frames of silk-stockinged Sloane Rangers and their mothers alike.
Now they`re in the States, and whether one calls them buckets, drawstring sacks or feedbags, their spacious, elongated shape is one trend in accessories that`s firmly in the bag.
The daddy of them all is Louis Vuitton`s Noe bag. Enjoying a fashion renaissance among young Europeans, much as Hermes scarves and Chanel bags have in recent years, the Noe wasn`t born yesterday. Originally crafted in the early 1930s by Gaston Vuitton, grandson of Louis, the bag was designed as a chic way to carry champagne bottles.
”Actually, it carries five, with the fifth bottle tied to the top,”
said Susan Meyer, director of public relations for Louis Vuitton U.S.A. However, she also found it easy to explain the rediscovery of the bag by a new generation more concerned with toting around bulky agendas, track shoes and baby bottles than Dom Perignon.
”It is very easy for a woman to handle,” Meyer said. ”It can hold everything without weighing a lot. It adapts to any style and, since it`s soft, it adapts to whatever is in it.”
Well-represented in stores now, the bucket shape shows up in handbag lines at all price levels for spring, and some retailers, such as Marshall Field & Co., are having private-label versions made up.
”I think it`s truly a practical shape. Most shoulder bags aren`t really big enough to put anything in,” said Sal Ruggiero, fashion director at Fields. The store`s Italian pigskin drawstring bag will be available in a range of colors, at $110, in February. –
