The Mini Bag

A trend in full evolution rarely goes half way. After the era of the maxi/oversize bags, it is now advisable to leave your gigantic carry-alls in the closet and to replace them with a ridiculously small purse.

Without realizing it, the fashionista has just been through a period that in hindsight will be seen as blessed by the fashion gods.

One season ago, she would have found it completely normal to be able to slip the Apple trilogy (iPod, iPad, iPhone) into her purse, as well as a Moleskine notebook, a bottle of Lagerfeld Coca Cola Light, and a makeup survival kit. Today, she has to face the necessity of lowering her demands. The backpack might make a mini comeback, but the recent spring/summer shows have definitely weakened this fashion possibility by taking the opposite stance.

Was Karl Lagerfeld a visionary when he proposed the mini, more-decorative-than-useful ankle bag in 2007? In any case, that is what came to mind while watching the latest shows, which saw the volumes of the future it bags reduced to almost nothing.

If we are to believe in the offers by houses like Hermès, Chanel, Prada or even Louis Vuitton (known for setting leather goods trends), the 2011 woman will either have to be Mary Poppins (capable shrinking objects in order to make them fit into the new micro volumes), or a multifunction android no longer needing her former gadgets.

In other words, we find it difficult to imaging how the Hermès micro Birkin or the Lilliputian Louis Vuitton bag will descend from the catwalks and fit into the real world, so much is their form seemingly unsuitable to daily living.

However, this infatuation for microscopic leather goods seems to have recently taken hold of the street. As if bitten by the idea of the freedom that comes with these new bags, several fashionistas have already adopted these tiny little bags barely capable of holding a fistful of lollipops during the latest fashion weeks (as seen here and there).

If we think about it, they might not have completely lost their minds. In fact, if in order to join the religion of the mini bag we must first succeed in distinguishing the essential from the superfluous, and renounce a few encumbering addictions (e.g., the just-in-case package of cookies, the duty free carton of cigarettes, the latest Barbara Cartland romance novel, etc). The sacrifice that these kilograms represent could make us feel much freer than before.

This being said, the models whose volumes are too minuscule to hold the iPhone/Freedent/Terracotta trio will have to be, nonetheless, boycotted.