OK. We’ve been stuck on writing about fancy shoes for FUN STUFF and can’t get enough of them.
Every day they become more outrageous, more pricey, and at times, more wondrous.
But the image we saw this week in The New York Daily News managed to take our Women’s Eyes off footwear (for the moment) and to a hoopy handbag that spread like wildfire on the internet.
It debuted at the 2013 Spring/Summer Paris Fashion Week causing quite a stir.
The News described this gigantic white quilted purse by Chanel as “balanced artfully between two black hula hoops.” Yes, it was created by that French house of haute design, Chanel.
Business Insider called it “bizarre,” and hoped in a subversive way that it would smash into someone in a subway. An article in the International Business Times asked whether “it was ludicrous or inspirational.” The Stir deemed it “hilarious,” and “big enough to carry the whole family.”
Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s veteran designer and maverick, defined his clever concoction in a video on The Telegraph, as a beach bag for towels that could be placed in the sand to hang things on. That cleared up the various questions brewing as to its purpose.
There doesn’t seem to be a price tag hanging on these hoops and there may never be.
It may just be a way to draw attention to the Chanel design that Lagerfeld describes as easy and approachable without being boring.
We wonder what Coco Chanel might think of the latest incarnation of her famous bag. It’s been reported that it was she, back in the 20’s, who decided to put straps on handbags because she was tired of carrying her bag in her arm. The straps were fashioned after those found on soldier’s bags.
Would she have ever dreamed they would turn into big black hula hoops?
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By Pamela Burke/October 4, 2012
Good eye, Pam. I’ve been following press coverage of Fashion Week and hadn’t seen the “hula-hoop” bag until your mention.
How fun and funny is this bag? So glad you got to see it. It was an eye-stopper for us.