Louis Vuitton HandBags Designer Gucci Handbags Prada

Bring along a favorite handbag for LaRee Johnson’s seminar on vintage handbags at 6 to 9 p.m. Monday at the Covington House, 4201 Main St., Vancouver.

Johnson wrote “Ladies’ Vintage Accessories” (Collector Books, 2000), and is a whiz at dating objects. She owns a huge collection of purses, as well as shoes, parasols, aprons and hats. For this event, she’ll discuss the care, cleaning and dating of vintage purses from the 1800s to the present.

Cost is $20 per person, and pre-registration is required. To register, or for more information, contact Rebecca Morrison-Peck, 360-686-3482 or e-mail at peck@pacifier.com.

Morrison-Peck owns Lacings in Yacolt, a business specializing in creating historical-clothing reproductions. Lacings, which is sponsoring Johnson’s visit, offers year-round classes in a wide variety of historical costuming techniques and textile-related subjects.

NEW YORK - Every year, for the last 14 years, vintage clothes and antique textile buyers have flocked to the Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion on West 18th Street. Dealers from all over the country display mostly American and British designer goods at this two-day event that happens about three times a year. Last week was the first show for 2006. The next show is slated for the end of April.

“We are still deep into the bias cut and Grecian look. If you see the Golden Globe Awards and the SAG Awards the women are all basically wearing one dress bias cut, Grecian looking, goddess dresses,” said promoter David Ornstein.

Ornstein also said, “I think the 70’s and the 80’s are the hottest thing.”

Speaking of all things Greek, owner of the vintage shop Psyche’s Tear, Suzanne Pettit, also discovered that particular styles in the 70’s and 80’s sell.

“Particularly 80’s stuff is really becoming hot although it’s interesting that the stuff that I sold here today were some 30’s and 40’s handbags that I had. But the other thing to think of is… style wise the 70’s was basically a bit of a repeat of the 30’s,” said Pettit.

With so many dealers selling designer vintage clothes and collectibles prices could be a little hefty. “You could probably buy a nice dress for as little as $200 and probably up to $5,000 or $6,000. And a $5,000 or $6,000 dollar dress will probably be a designer dress by a Couture designer dress,” said Ornstein.

There are also plenty of vintage clothes that are both affordable and wearable. However vintage high heels should be worn at your own discretion.

“It’s just a little harder to find things like that that are in really good condition because I like to have clothing that’s very wearable. You know that people can actually use rather then collectible stuff,” said Pettit.

As for textiles, Ornstein said, “People buy textiles for inspiration and cotton prints and prints for chiffon are still very, very much desirable.” Besides paying about $20 to just shop around, vintage shoppers could also see vintage clothes by Ossie Clark, a star of London’s fashion scene during the 60’s and 70’s, which was on special exhibition courtesy of Mark & Cleo Butterfield of C20 Vintage Fashion.

Not everything in the past will be next year’s fashion trend or seen often in vintage sale shows. Shoulder pads from the 80’s were not visible.

“Gosh, I wish I knew I lived through it the first time. But people are tending to like the very ornate handbags. They did a lot of fun things with leather in the 80’s, some things that were a little bit over the top. I mean people aren’t necessarily going for the big shoulder pads that were in the 80’s,” said Pettit.

t says you’ve arrived. That you’re part of an exclusive club. That you are a fashion insider. And an affluent one.

Your purse packs a punch.

“In an age when nobility has no true signature, an expensive designer bag is the most rapid social shorthand for status,” Anna Johnson, the author of Handbags: The Power of the Purse (Workman Publishing, 2001), writes by e-mail. “Between women, it’s a sign of success and social mobility. Fiercely so.”

Customers are lining up to spend $1,200 or more for such models as Chloe’s padlock-adorned “Paddington” and Fendi’s top-handled “Spy Bag.”

Stores have waiting lists for those designs, as styles such as the 50th-anniversary edition of Chanel’s famous 2.55 quilted leather bag with chain handle are flying out of Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Why are status bags getting so much attention when, according to the consumer-research outfit NPD Group, most American women spend only $40 to $65 a bag?

Handbags are hot for a number of reasons. Trends flow down from the high end to the mass market, and companies serving both customers stand to make big profits on a product that women love to buy.

Handbag sales in the United States were projected to be $5.76 billion for 2004, an increase of 8 percent, according to Accessories Magazine, which conducts an annual audit.

“Everyone is getting into it because there’s so much money to be made,” says Valerie Steele, the director of the Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and author of Handbags: A Lexicon of Style (Rizzoli International Publications Inc., 1999).

The status-bag market even has spawned online businesses such as bagborroworsteal.com and frombagstoriches.com that rent handbags to women who lust for them but lack the cash or the desire to own them forever.

In addition, for the shopper, a handbag is a forgiving purchase, not requiring she be built like a supermodel. “You don’t have to be a size 2 or have a wonderful little waist, which helps you get over the despair of shopping,” Steele says.

And a designer bag can lend clout to a wardrobe at a price far below what a full outfit from the design-house label might cost.

“One step up from perfume, the handbag is also the most accessible item an ordinary working woman can afford from a very exclusive house,” Johnson says. “Status bags are a cheap thrill, comparatively speaking, for those who want business class but are living coach.”

“Handbags are collectible in a way that shoes are not,” the author adds. “They don’t pound the pavement. They also are wearable in a way that hats are not. All you need is a manicure, and you’re ready to rock.”

Women who buy status bags often speak of investing in the item, as opposed to clothing purchases that are likely to be in and out of style. “When you look at how often you carry a bag, it’s easier to justify (the price),” says Holly Kylberg of Denver, who is busy on the social and philanthropic scene and is known for her extensive designer wardrobe. “In many cases, you are wearing it every day.”

Purses also are the type of item that can be put away after a season and recycled a year or two later, says Evelyn Dallal, a New York fashion public relations executive.

“I’m constantly pulling out my Epi leather Vuitton bags. I’ve worn them for years,” says Dallal, who used to represent Vuitton and now has another high-end accessories client, LAI.

“I’m an accessories person. I dress simply, but I love color and exotic skins. I never used to buy colored bags, but I’ve learned it’s a way to dress up your outfit.”

This is a prevailing thought about status style: wearing a single designer or a bunch of designer duds head to toe looks dated, while toting a Gucci purse while wearing a casual outfit sends another message: “You spent a bundle,” Steele says. “Nobody wants to look like a fashion victim.”

But what bag does a woman choose? Which one is going to be the true “it” bag, a style with the staying power of Hermes’ Kelly, named for one of its most famous customers, Grace Kelly, or Chanel’s classic quilted bag? Or the more contemporary Fendi baguette or Dior saddlebag?

Designs from such companies as Chloe and Balenciaga are gaining ground with young shoppers.

Michelle Heacock-Webster, a handbag-and-accessories manager at Neiman Marcus, says she recently talked with a college-age woman who had her sights set on a status bag. “She said, “What I can really afford is Kate Spade, but I must have a Chloe bag. This is the only bag I’m getting.”

The store expanded its handbag department a year ago and added several lines, but Heacock-Webster says she didn’t notice “the explosion” in interest in bags until this past spring.

“I have had some Chloe and Fendi bags wait-listed since July. We basically take the orders and ring them when they come in. They never even hit the floor,” Heacock-Webster says.

She and others say that customer interest is fueled by celebrity sightings, advertisements and other marketing by the handbag companies.

Fendi’s success a few years back with the baguette bag, which was seen on everything from the HBO hit Sex and the City to the arms of a slew of Hollywood starlets, led other companies into the game, says Ellyn Chestnut, a fashion-accessories director at Elle magazine. “The market was flooded with people who wanted to do an ‘it’ bag. Designers would want to know what we thought of them and were pushing us to feature them.”

For a bag to attain that status, Chestnut says, “It has to have coolness and wearability.”

Exclusivity helps, too. From many of the high-end companies, bags only trickle into the stores, leading to limited supplies and resulting wait lists.

Also a factor is that the bag be seen on the right people, including editors and celebrities. “Prada for many seasons would give fashion editors their bag of the season,” Chestnut says.

The focus now has shifted to celebrities, who provide “instant gratification” to companies when their designs are seen in magazines, she says.

And it doesn’t matter if Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton got the style in an awards-show goodie bag, if they are photographed wearing it, “the look is celebrity-endorsed, and it inspires people to buy,” says Deborah Rudinsky, merchandise manager for accessories at The Doneger Group, a New York City buying office.

“Accessories play a much bigger role in a woman’s wardrobe than they ever have,” Rudinsky says. “It’s a sensible way of updating your own inventory, regardless of your income level.”

And when your budget won’t fully cooperate, you can still get into the game. Sandy McNamee, a busy mother of three, was having trouble deciding what purse to get for her birthday a few months back. “I knew I wanted a handbag, but they were so pricey. I love Marc Jacobs.”

McNamee’s husband found out about bagborroworsteal.com, a membership service for handbag lovers that rents styles for a set monthly fee, a sort of Netflix for the fashion lover. “He got to present me with a handbag and the membership. It’s really fun,” McNamee says.

Much has been discussed (sometimes in the form of political propaganda, but discussed nonetheless) in recent years about the link between the black market and fanatical terrorist-like organizations. The trail of money from the sale of things like knock-off handbags, bootleg DVD’s, drugs, and the like can easily be seen leading back to criminal organizations, generally with some political bend.

While it’s hard to argue the money trail (who do you think sells this stuff?), as well the “effect” portion of the theory (terrorism isn’t good)- the “cause” seems to have been relegated to the arena of moral and political propaganda. Terrorists are evil-doers, thus so are pot smokers and bootleg DVD collectors. Patrons of the knock-off Prada handbag peddler in New York City? That’s right- evil-doers.

Maybe this suffices for the simplicity necessary nowadays to market a political and moral agenda. Unfortunately, real-world cause-and-effect isn’t so black and white. When we look at the issue under the microscope of socio-economic reality, the real causes involve players in our own capitalist economy: the companies that supply goods, and the consumers who want them.

The issue is of serious concern. Sure, it certainly may be difficult to take it seriously for most people, when the only interface to the issue is Reefer Madness-style public service announcements during the Super Bowl, somehow drawing a line from a teenager’s desire to experiment with marijuana to Islamic fundamentalists flying planes into buildings. However, with the rapid globalization of the economy, combined with the fact that terrorist attacks are now a threat within the borders of nearly every nation- the issue of the supply and demand of the black market should be a primary matter in the War on Terror.

- THE VALUE GAP -

Sometimes it helps to skip over the moral arguments and move right into the universe of Economics 101 (in that morality is often made up, and economics is real). Black markets often exist because of a gap between the value of a product and the demand for it. This gap is often caused by some artificial effect on the current value of the product, because unaltered supply and demand should create a value for a product that generally works for everyone that needs it. We all complain about the price of gas and groceries, but there is a reason that there isn’t a thriving black market for it.

There is, however, a black market for what our culture considers high-end luxury items. A select few people with relatively massive expendable income have valued, for example, certain purses or watches thousands of times higher than their normal, mass-market counterparts. I’m not about to condemn this on some “higher moral ground”- free market economics safely allows for value to be placed on items for purely intangible, vanity reasons. If you can easily afford a $1000 watch, go nuts.

The problem occurs when the mass culture- not just the ones who have nothing better to do than buy $1000 watches- ascribes a need for or entitlement to the same irrational types of products, disregarding the economic means of quenching this need. It works like this: A purse, for instance, is recognized as a need. The fulfillment of this need is valued at $1000 (a $20 purse will just not do!) The means to fulfill this need is, say, $20 (the person can reasonably afford a $20 purse). Thus, the perfect environment for a black market: $20 knock-offs of $1000 purses.

Now, will our desire for designer handbags bring about the end of Western Civilization? Most likely, no. At least not all that quickly. However, when you look at it conceptually, from above, one begins to see the connection between rampant consumerism and the destructive factions of our global culture. Gluttony and irrational consumerism- for this and many other reasons- certainly aren’t helping the security and progress of our civilization.

- THE ANTIQUATED VALUE OF ENTERTAINMENT -

When we take a look at other areas of the black market problem, the socio-economic causes play out slightly differently. That is to say, the corporations supplying the legal versions of these products aren’t necessarily free of fault, either.

The digital age has turned the entertainment industry on its head. The economics of the entertainment industry have always been very different than, say, manufacturing; the value of the end product- what is essentially intangible “content”- is mostly fueled by perception. For decades there was rarely- if ever- a price war in terms of the cost of a CD or VHS/DVD movie. Even though the tangible, base product (essentially a bunch of zeros and ones on plastic) was of little actual value, the ethereal “meaning” of the product (songs, words, and/or images) had a high relative value in the market. Of course, having a monopoly on the distribution of said product helped inflate that value.

As the Internet became widely adopted, an interesting change occurred with the perceived value of entertainment content. It sank to next to nothing. The masses were easily- albeit illegally- able to obtain the same product for free. And they did. This is in stark contrast to the economics of the $1000 designer purse, where people clamor to value the intangible characteristics of a product well beyond the cost of its parts and distribution. Simply put, the masses told the entertainment industry that they wanted to consume massive quantities of their product, but they wanted it dirt cheap.

The industry responded not by quickly changing the way they sell their product, but by the rather curious move of criminalizing and suing their own customers in bulk. One would think that a normal market response would be for one or two record companies- for instance- to respond to the realities of the market and maybe to give away the songs as a leader into making money off concerts, t-shirts, and the like.

The irony in all of this is that the aforementioned changes in the demand were a result of the expense of distributing the supply truthfully becoming dirt cheap- a situation most industries beg for. However, the entertainment industry seems to be sticking by an inflated value for its product. At the same time, criminal organizations certainly don’t mind selling bootleg CDs and DVDs at a price the market will bear. Yet again, an irrational concept of value creates a black market- this time on the supply side.

- THE REAL WAR ON TERROR -

The black market is unlike any other illicit and criminal environment in that it directly exposes- and exploits- irrationality in the counterpart legal environment it mimics- our economy. And the black market is no small affair- by some counts it is twenty to thirty percent of the entire global economy. That’s actually not such a big problem until we see where this money is going.

As we evolve into a global economy, this black market is stretching far beyond the simple desire of an individual to make a quick-and-easy buck. The bad guys are no longer a few derelicts on a street corner peddling fake watches from a trench coat. Rather, the bad guys are now extremist political organizations- terrorists- many bent on disrupting or destroying capitalism itself.

One may take this as an indictment on the general concept of capitalism. Certainly, as we’ve seen, the forces primarily at fault for the rise in the black market are the players in the game of capitalism: suppliers and consumers. However it is not quite that simple. The problem is not capitalism, but rather the inability of the said players to responsibly participate in capitalism.

The variables here that cause the irrational flaws in the market- which, in turn, feed criminal interests- are very much cultural, even psychological. We are a culture that increasingly devalues true logical thinking. It’s perfectly accepted for a consumer to value a purse at $1000. It’s perfectly understandable for an industry to try to cling on to a business model based on inflated perceived value.

Terrorism is not funded simply by “evil doers” doing evil things. It is funded by illogical thinking and irrational consumerism. That, in the end, may be the toughest war to fight.

We recently received an e-mail plea from a New Line staffer begging us to solicit support for beloved local Robertson Blvd. food cart vendor “Antonio the hot dog guy,” whom the owner of a newly opened accessories store called Surly Girl is attempting to displace. Knowing every story has two sides, and being fans in equal measure of both fiery sausage and Swarovski-crystal-encrusted calculators alike (see their online catalog: “Very, very trendy and cool purses!” says Ryan Seacrest–we shit you not), we stayed safely out of the matter. Today, Page Six stokes the flames:

[Surly Girl owner Alison] Muh retorts, “I am a small, new business trying to pay my astronomical rent. I cannot afford to lose a sale. Antonio was parked in front of my store and took up two parking spots all day … He was paying off parking enforcement with free food, which is why they let him park in a two-hour metered zone for over six hours a day. On one day alone, I counted more than 20 shoppers who could not walk through [Antonio’s] unruly line to get to my store. I begged my landlord to help me find a good solution for everyone. We finally approached Antonio directly and he yelled at us.”

Sony Pictures staffer Leigha Lindsay sent Surly Girl staff an e-mail with a subtle threat: “Have you had a turkey dog? A burrito? A tuna sandwich? I ask that you take this into strong consideration as bad press is not beneficial to your store.”

We must commend Muh, who could have easily replied to the angry industry luncher with a counter e-mail along the lines of, “Well, have you ever tried a Large Hamptons Hobo? A flower bangle? A Laguna Tote?!” Here’s hoping the two businesses find a workable solution, and that life on the bustling boulevard gets back to normal soon. After all, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t be able to pick up a couple kosher dogs with everything for you and your latest purchase, who probably hasn’t been fed in days.