The last few seasons have seen fashion embrace everything minimalist and pared back. While we love a low-key, quiet luxury bag for everyday use, there’s something freeing, uplifting, and perhaps even unhinged about carrying a handbag shaped like an animal or adorned with a thousand crystals. Especially when party season comes around.
The concept of the novelty bag isn’t novel, really. Judith Leiber’s ornately bejewelled minaudières in quirky shapes have been a celebrity favourite for decades. Jeremy Scott’s Moschino biker jacket and teddy bear bags were huge in the 2010s. Thom Browne’s dachshund-shaped Hector bag, first seen in the designer’s pre-fall 2016 collection, is still around and spotted at fashion weeks eight years on.
But who’s wearing these bags, you might ask? Earlier this year in August, we saw Blake Lively wearing a series of whimsical bags by Chanel and Judith Leiber while promoting her latest movie It Ends with Us. Not long after, Jenna Ortega carried a purse modelled after the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice house, by Parisian designer Ozias, for the film’s London premiere. At the CFDA Fashion Awards in October, ‘Diet Pepsi’ singer Addison Rae carried a shell to go with her mermaid-inspired outfit. Dua Lipa has been spotted with her heart-shaped bag from Ambush. Shalini Passi, of course, is a big fan, too with a veritable menagerie of sparkly bags including ones shaped like a cupcake, a swan, a parrot, and a poodle. Loewe’s pigeon clutch, Louis Vuitton’s house-shaped bag (as seen on Natasha Poonawalla), and Coach’s giant purses shaped like teddies, lips, and dinosaurs are other examples of novelty bags that have made waves in recent months.
