The 10 Quirkiest Bags for Those Who Choose to Dare
Unconventional, funny, absurd, hypnotic. Special bags are a real guilty pleasure.
The Cleo by Prada, the Speedy Bandoulière 20 by Vuitton , the Le Teckel by ALAÏA . All bags worthy of great respect. But what happens if you let the reins of stylistic rigor loose? Creativity takes advantage of this to shape particular bags outside the box, women's bags, but also men's, destined to trigger the wow effect. How? Taking inspiration from reality and reworking it in an ironic and illusory abstract way.
Today a designer women's bag is elegant, but also has the delicious appearance of a slice of cake with a candle, a baseball or an animal. And even if it's a black bag , a wacky bag - as the English call them, it will be in the shape of a high-heeled shoe or soft and misshapen like the well-known garbage bag. Let's mention one brand above all, Judith Lieber, a maximalist reference for truly surprising bags and clutches outside the canonical schemes. Whatever theme you think of, she has done it, happily covered in colored crystals. Hungarian, she arrived in the United States in 1947 to escape from war-torn Europe, in 1963 after a long experience in the production of fashion accessories, she opened her eponymous brand which is still active today and loved by stars and celebs from all over the world. From Beyoncé to Lady Gaga, from Hillary Clinton to Mamie Eisenhower.
Transformation has never scared fashion daredevils, so for all those who appreciate the outside world and aesthetic risk, we have assembled 10 models of particular bags that deserve to enter this top ten.
Why Special Bags Take Inspiration from Everyday Life
Raf Simons thought of bringing some healthy provocation to the placid and hermetic minimalism of Jil Sander back in 2011. Market bag is therefore the transposition of the very useful plastic bag from the supermarket made with noble materials such as leather, patent leather, silk and cotton to catch the eye of onlookers. Demna Gvasalia - now known simply as Demna - will make full use of this transposition to churn out other aesthetic puns such as the Ikea duffel bag (SS 2017) or the black garbage bag (FW 22) obviously made of black bio-fabricated leather based on mycelium . And what about the Brown bag by Bottega Veneta with the appearance of a paper bag when in fact it is a masterpiece of quiet luxury in smooth leather for almost two thousand euros?
Shoe Clutch Knife, the clutch in the shape of a high-heeled shoe as sharp as a weapon
We said it a few lines ago. Demna plays with illusions and with breaking patterns with the same naturalness with which he breathes. We are used to it by now. After the Lays potato chip bags (we also mention the very chromatic Crisp Packet Clutch by Anya Hindmarch), the garbage bags and the Ikea ones, we are faced with another metaphor of Elsian memory. If you don't get it into your head, the shoe becomes a splendid clutch to hold in your hand and possibly throw as a weapon of defense and/or warning.
Special Zoomorphic Bags, Thom Browne's Hector Bag is Full of Love
Thom Browne has immortalised his beloved dog, a dachshund named Hector, in his own image and likeness in this life-size handbag. First appearing in the Autumn-Winter 2016 men's collection, its continued popularity has seen it reproduced in numerous materials and colours until it became the definitive signature bag of the American brand.
The inexplicable success of mini bags
We are not new to outsized sizes, small and precious bags were once also called minaudière , precisely small jewel containers in which to store only the essentials, responsible for accompanying magnificent grand soirée outfits without ever weighing them down. Wristlets, pouches, every trick was allowed in order to keep bulky volumes at bay. Then Simone Porte arrived. In the 2018 summer collection, without too many announcements, the French designer puts between the fingers of the models small examples of what will be one of the most sensational and viral commercial successes in the modern history of bags: Le Chiquito mini. 1.2 x 9 centimeters of absolute unuse and yet delicious and desirable. Maybe you can keep a pair of earrings in them. Maybe.
In 2019, Lizzo upped the ante by sporting a tiny version of the Valentino Visling bag at the American Music Awards.
Chanel Camera Bag, the photographer's shoulder bag
With Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel has reached the highest peaks in terms of creativity and interpretation of the playful spirit of the contemporary mademoiselle. Bags have been the most successful area of experimentation: from irreverent shapes including a shopping basket, a film projector, a gas tank, a matryoshka doll and a milk carton, to the oversized Hula Hoop bag, a large rigid ring with which to go à la plage using it as a coat hanger, the Maison with the double C has always loved that right dose of madness. Here we have chosen the famous Camera Bag, a protective rigid silhouette complete with lens cover that instead hides a delightful vanity mirror. Inspired by the bags in which photographers carry and store their cameras, it first appeared in Chanel collections in the 1980s under the direction of Karl Lagerfeld, also known for being a very talented photographer.
Surrealist bags, there is only one by Schiaparelli
This rigid copper clutch with lambskin interior and embellished with the characteristic shaped mouth, here with pavé piercing, is among the recurring themes used by Daniel Roseberry , at the helm of the maison since 2019, in an ongoing dialogue with the founder Elsa Schiaparelli. A brand born in 1927 and characterized by a very strong surrealist and artistic charge. Eyes, ears, nose, lips and hands are among Elsa's obsessions, having grown up immersed in the creative broth of surrealist artists of the period such as Salvador Dalì and Jean Cocteau. Today Elsa's legacy continues with anatomical codes more present than ever in the Maison's unique creations.
The Taming of the Shrew, the special "rebel" clutch bag by Benedetta Bruzziches
“But sir, I trust I have permission to speak, and I will speak. I am not a child, a suckling. People better than you have let me have my say, and if you don't want to, cover your ears. I will vent the anger in my heart with my tongue, or if I suffocate her my heart will break, and I'd rather let it break, full vent to words, as I wish.” This is how Benedetta Bruzziches ' website describes the essence of the Taming of the Bisbetica Domata , the jewel clutch shaped into an irregular, apparently unstable volume by a metal mesh studded with crystal rhinestones. Arrived on planet Earth with the AW22/23 collection, inside it houses a 3D printed ABS structure then lined in silk satin. We are also happy to mention Cabaret, a clutch declaration of love that takes its name from the typical package of sweets shared by families during Sunday lunches.
Sandy Liang's Maxi Bow Shoulder Bag for Incurable Romantics
Vans and Salomon are among the most famous collaborations by Sandy Liang that place the beloved New York designer of Chinese origins with a romantic soul at a notable level of consideration. Her world is surrounded by bows and pink in every scale and intensity available. Active as a designer since 2014, her ability to translate the romantic vein of the 90s into our contemporary has conquered every layer of Gen Z. That's why the maxi version of the Regalo bag contains the sugary hyperbole of our time totally addicted to the coquette-core.
The Silent Charm of JW Anderson's Pigeon Clutch
When Jonathan Anderson staged his autumn winter 21/22 men's collection , perhaps he didn't imagine the viral load that 3D printed pigeon would generate. He walked the catwalk in double version, cautiously in the hands of a model in a silver jumpsuit, or he observed the onlookers in single version. He certainly made himself noticed and from then on it was delirium. The intuition of taking a model of bird, generally used for training hunting dogs among the undergrowth, and equipping it with a mobile wing to create a comfortable (?) space inside, triggered the obsession for what we now recognize in the English designer as the crazy surrealist streak that distinguishes him. Immediately flaunted by Sarah Jessica Parker in the new episodes of AJLT, Sex & The City as an apotropaic clutch, it was not an isolated case. Others such as the frog, the canary and the toucan have been added to JW Anderson's zoomorphic series.
Moschino women's bags, the craziest shapes
The theme of unusual and crazy bags remains the prerogative of the one and only, Franco Moschino . His irony has been the training ship for the irreverence and the game of true/false of all the designers and creators who came after him. His was an intelligent, subtle mockery that went beyond the apparently playful and pop formality. Behind it resided, lightly, a message. If the first mention of the clutch baguette bag dates back to the spring summer 1994 collection, the year of the death of the designer from Abbiategrasso, to which the Michetta bag was added first and the croissant later by Jeremy Scott, creative director from 2013 to 2023 , the theme of baked goods transferred to another use saw Silvia Venturini Fendi use the name in 1997 to christen what would become the it bag of the maison iconicized throughout the world. Two other examples are with Dauphinette where the underarm bread is enriched with an external coin holder, and with Amélie Pichard with the Michard shoulder bag born in 2019 and made of acacia wood. Fun Fact: the French Ministry of Culture has included the baguette in the Inventory of National Intangible Cultural Heritage.
