Purses Shaped Like Ballet Slippers, Baseball Hats, and Tartan Boxers Are Taking Over The Fashion Industry
Almost anything can be a vehicle to hold objects. So why settle for a typical tote-shaped purse? The possibilities of what shape a bag can take are literally endless and, thankfully, the fashion industry is catching onto this realization. Purses that are equally functional and unexpected are popping up everywhere right now. The off-kilter trend is creating a statement about what we consider to be fashion by erring towards purses that double as conceptual art pieces.
Not unlike the readymade, an art movement from the early 1900s where Dada artists re-purposed common household objects as pieces of art, the nouveau trend of turning otherwise non-purse objects into purses complicate our notions of what objects can be used for what. Call it the ready-purse. If Marcel Duchamp famously took a urinal and turned into art, these designers have turned equally unusual objects and turned them into...fashion.
Since 2017, artist Andrea Bergart has been making distinctive bags out of basketballs. Her line of bags was inspired by her involvement in New York City’s Downtown Girls Basketball — a group of female creatives who have banded together on a basketball team. In the process, the artist found herself inspired to create a satirical tribute to WNBA and NBA players, re-imagining all the ways we can use a basketball, other than dribbling it down the court. She’s since gone onto partner with Nike and earlier this year, branched out and began creating bags out of soccer balls (which, naturally, are perfect for those looking to fashionably celebrate the US Women’s Soccer Team’s World Cup win).
Sport fashion is already having a serious moment and major fashion houses like Chanel and Gucci have followed in Andrea’s footsteps, creating their own basketball bags that make us want to play like a champion.
Another great example of a purse that takes inspiration from outside the handbag world is Loewe’s elephant bag, which in recent years has become synonymous with the brand. The silhouette grew so popular that the brand has now released other creaturely purses, like field mice and bunnies. Note: wearing one of these purses might make you feel like Snow White with a woodland creature carrying your lip chap for you.
Going beyond ball-bags and animal iterations, some designers are taking the trend one step further and creating out-of-the-ordinary boxes that have us scratching our heads and simultaneously saving our money. Take designer Charles Jeffrey Loverboy’s bag made out of tartan boxer shorts with a matching tartan strap, for example. It looks like the bottom half of a deranged leprechaun is hanging off your shoulder. The bag is reminiscent of the 80s DIY trend of turning an old pair of jean shorts into a purse, so this is one you could easily replicate yourself.
Then there’s Maison Margiela, who took their famous hooved Tabi boots, and turned them into a quaint evening bag. The bag looks like a single ballerina slipper, beige sole included, with the deranged twist of a hooved toe. And just last week, Jonathan Anderson, dropped a leather baseball hat purse last week for J.W. Anderson, ideal for summer baseball games.
By taking different objects and turning them into bags, these designers could be making some meta-commentary on how we wear clothes, not unlike the cultural statements the Dadaists made with their use of the readymade. Why is this trend catching on? Using an object for something other than its intended purpose is delightfully eccentric and unexpected. These bags can camouflage into their surroundings. Like an optical illusion, at first glance they look like something else — visual trickery that we can get behind. Is it a bird? A plane? No, it’s my purse. And if “can you pass me my purse?” elicits confused stares, you can always ask: “can you pass me my basketball?”
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
