Seems rumours of the It bag’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. It hasn’t expired; It has just moved: countries and genders. From being a Western woman’s thing, it is now a Chinese man’s thing. There’s a very good story about it in the LA Times.
Apparently, guys in what has been officially decreed the next luxury Valhalla are using bags just like women everywhere else used to: to signal membership in a group, success, and aspiration. The more logo-bedecked and obvious, the less briefcase-like and obscure, the better. Apparently, these guys aren’t just from Beijing; they’re from Venus too!
Before brands who love their initials and the investors that love them get super-duper excited about this prospective revenue bump, however, it’s worth thinking a bit about the implications for design and production at the houses in question.
After all, when It was a woman thing, you could make a few styles — perhaps tweak the proportions for the Asian market by making totes and purses smaller — and sell what was effectively one family of products globally.
By contrast, however, I doubt a man purse with LVs or GGs or CCs all over it will fly out of the stores in, say, London or Brussels, meaning the market differentiation issue is about to explode: to respond effectively, brands will need to create global identities, but design (and even at some stage, for maximum efficiency, produce?) local. And that has cost and organisational repercussions.
Indeed, it may be at the root of the recent decision by Hermes to start a China-only brand, and it’s about time the rest of the industry sat up and started thinking, because as a macro business trend, my guess is we are just at the top of a steep and slippery slope.
Related reading:
beyondbrics – the FT’s emerging markets hub
Vanessa has been the FT’s fashion editor since 2003, and is based in New York, though she lived in London for 12 years.