Model Bags Explained

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A top model is never caught on-the-go without a well-stocked handbag –- Aussie stunner Skye Stracke (above) even totes a full-size lint-roller in hers. But just as fleeting as a supermodel's reign supreme is the fate of their prized purses. For the freshman class of models gaining "supermodel" stature in the 1980s, the bag of choice was classic: Chanel. Soon thereafter, Tom Ford's groundbreaking glamazon collections for Gucci (owing in part to a provocative series of campaigns first released in 1995 photographed by Mario Testino and art directed by Carine Roitfeld) made Gucci's once-waning leathergoods the go-to mannequin marque.

With the latter part of the decade's minimalist trend in full-swing, the rise of Prada's ever-practical streamlined nylon bags (not-so-coincidentally coinciding with the 1998 opening of the first U.S. Prada flagship on Fifth Avenue) stacked themselves in instantly identifiable heaps and bounds backstage. Then came Marc Jacobs, whose mainstream artist collaborations for Louis Vuitton (Stephen Sprouse in 2001 and Takashi Murakami in 2003 and the superlative Richard Prince creations) and eponymous line's clever phenomenon of naming bags after models (Stam! Bruna! Cecilia!) dominated the shoulders of supermodels in the 2000's. With the It Bag's well-publicized recessionary demise, the current crop of top models' handbag vote steers clear of obvious ostentation or blatant branding.

Since at present pretension in the purse department just won't suffice, it came as little surprise to spot a majority of models clutching Miu Miu bags (confections never lacking a sense of humour) and elegant Chanel 2.55's behind the scenes this Haute Couture week in Paris. While the legendary 2.55's costly Mobile Art Pavilion Tour (conceived by Zaha Hadid and Karl Lagerfeld) may have been nixed, Coco's signature chained shoulder bag was in fact the preferred purse of the industry's first Supers in the 1980's. As we find ourselves suffering the consequences of a similar era of greed and subsequent (eerily analogous) aftermath, it makes sense that the models are grasping the same Chanel sacs and arming themselves with Miuccia's signature wit.

Who said it was "just a bag"?