Fashion designers must've been starved for inspiration this season because they ordered up a heaping helping of food-shaped handbags for Fall/Winter 2024. It's no longer about looking like a snack: it's all about carrying one.
This is hardly off-menu for designers often inclined to raid the pantry — Andy Warhol's soup cans and tiny, tasty hors d'oeuvres are consistent stylistic references — but the proliferation of food bags on Paris Fashion Week runways signifies a feast of overlapping good taste.
And I mean taste of the mouth variety.
For instance, Moschino and UNDERCOVER both carbed-up with baguette-centric accessories: Moschino made actual bread-shaped clutches while the translucent bags carried by UNDERCOVER's working women were merely baguette-shaped (and branded). It'd be a treat if they came with the fresh French bread inside.
Speaking of tasteful toteables, how about LOEWE's asparagus-shaped bags?
Creative director JW Anderson is a master of the trompe l'oeil trinket, we all know this, but his hand-beaded ceramic vegetables were a delicious statement even by his own cultured palate. Yummy.
The asparagus bags also refer back to Anderson's art obsession — Anderson, himself a hardcore collector, found inspiration in a historic Chelsea Porcelain design — in a collection already rich with stunning, quirky craft.
That's the thing about these new food bags. They're no mere curio: They're little sculptures that just so happen to be sometimes useful.
At Bottega Veneta's Winter 2024 show, little leather fishies woven in Bottega's signature intrecciato pattern swam alongside plush leather coats and ballooning wool overshirts.
Okay, so maybe this stretches the definition of edible accessorizing — some would say that fish are friends, not food — but we're wading in similar waters. The motif is handbags that look like lunch and, anyone whose diet is at least at the pescatarian level, Bottega fits the bill. Or the fin, such that it is.
But more than anything, Bottega's fish bag is indicative of the meat and potatoes that inform today's buffet of food-shaped bags.
Replicating the shape of foodstuffs has been done to death. Go beyond the shape with real attention to detail, real craft shaping sumptuous handbags. Yes chef!
The phenomenon is so appetizing that it goes far beyond the big-name fashion houses.
While Paris Fashion Week was going down, freelance designer Tal Maslavi debuted a clever bag that riffs on his own cake shoes.
Remember those "Is it cake?" memes that went viral during the COVID-19 pandemic? They're four years old now Really makes you think.
This was not a gimmick for gimmick's sake, though: Maslavi's $1,000 handbags are made in Italy of nappa leather and each fitted with a custom-made cake slice accent. It may be funny but it's also bonafide luxury.
As good as it is, the edible handbag movement isn't a trend proper; these highly situational handbags won't ever supersede more conventional accessories for obvious reasons. Do you ever really see anyone carrying around Balenciaga's chip bag?
But utility was never the goal. Food bags are fun, the only time it's okay to play with your food. And this new generation is, importantly, quality-conscious, elevating them from bauble to beautiful.
And, really, don't we all deserve a sweet treat once in a while?
