Karl Lagerfel

How did this happen?" Nina Collins asked as she settled down to a lunch of miso soup and salad in downtown Manhattan last week. "When did we get to this place where we spend $1,000 on a discount gucci handbags wholesale, many are giving common sense the slip, parting with, say, $975 for a best seller like the Marc Jacobs Sofia bag, which which last fall commanded $895, or $1,445 for a leather Prada "bowler" bag that, a few seasons back, cost $940 or $990 for similar models. Shoppers' infatuation with Chanel Handbagshas lent that category significant clout, to the point, retailers and industry analysts say, that bags have supplanted Giuseppe Zanotti Isabel Marant sneakers , jeans and even jewelry as consumers' choice signifier of affluence, social standing and hipness. Never mind that some models, in the battered and fringed styles now popular, look as though they belonged to a tramp. "It seems that each year what we're seeing in the women's fashion Gucci market there has been a migration from one category to the next," said Marshal Cohen, the chief retail analyst for the NPD Group, a market research firm in Port Washington, N.Y. "A few years ago it was Giuseppe Zanotti Isabel Marant sneakers . Last year it was jeans. This is the year Giuseppe Zanotti Sneakers of the handbag."
Gucci analysts say the new handbag aficionados aren't necessarily middle-aged or rich, and that some may defer other purchases in order to splurge. "Brand Bags are selling to women in a wider age range than we've ever seen before," said Dana Telsey, a retail analyst with Bear, Stearns, citing customers from their 20's to their 60's and 70's. The youngest are willing to make Giuseppe Zanotti a tradeoff, Ms. Telsey said. "Maybe it's their lunches. Or maybe it's their living quarters. They'd rather wear their paycheck Giuseppe Zanotti Sale."