TRENDING: rich moms and their heavy bags
a final kiss to qu*et luxury?
Something is HAPPENING (BTW this is not about big bags being in or small bags being out)……
All of our favorite rich moms (Beverly Hills! Montecito! Tribeca! Gramercy! Chelsea!) are favoring big, heavy bags worn in the crook of their elbow. TBH it all feels like the physical representation of detachment — from efficiency, “hands free” practicality, and, most importantly, the concerns of an ordinary life.
To the untrained eye, most of these bags appear relatively plain — meaning, on the surface, everyone is blending in…. yet messenger bags, totes, and cross-bodys are seemingly becoming… too pedestrian? Likely because luxurious effortlessness is actually a direct signal of effort. We’ve officially subbed overt impracticality (mini kellys and baby birkins) for contextual impracticality (see below). And in that shift, we are presented with a political mirror that accurately encapsulates the changing dynamics surrounding this country’s broadening wealth gap (groceries! discretionary spending!)….
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The cultural anthropology must come first!
It now feels very important to mention that this weekend, I was visually accosted by glimmering Metier Moms (heavy bags I saw all WITHOUT the strap attachment here, here, here, and here). And then I read
(an elusive international hot mom!) spin a delectable web around the comeback of her beloved Hermes Victoria ( you were right..… I DO need the orange, ugh). And THEN, I opened instagram to see Meghan Markle leave a Montecito Mom lunch in a la linge set and a heavy looking Loro Loom tucked into her flexed forearm. (I fear I know it is heavy because I analyzed her walk & posture and can tell that it’s definitely full and definitely inconvenient at best, uncomfortable at worst.)That’s when the above, which was floating in my head like little clouds, hit me: this is YES a niche observation, but also a VERY important case study on the cultural shifts that favor subtle impracticalities > overt displays of (quiet) wealth (e.g., the energetic signature of a full loro fit vs the implied frameworks that governed Meghan Markle’s Loro Loom). Because there WAS a time where the obvious choice to accessorize that la ligne set would have been an L19, and we must remember that!!!