A fashion scandal? A unique prank? An amusing meme? Or just a load of garbage? People are scratching their heads over fashion house Balenciaga’s new purse-cum-scatchel that looks remarkably like a regular ol’ garbage bag.
Yes. A garbage bag. But with a hefty price.
“Trash Pouch,” a new design for Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter 2022 line, was previewed during a recent show in Paris this past spring. Models wearing dystopian monotone futuristic wear walked down a catwalk seemingly placed in the middle of a tundra during a berating winter storm. Each carried the pouch with such aplomb that you almost forget the outrageous $1,790 price tag, except you don’t. Because you can’t.
One thousand seven hundred and ninety big ones.
As The New York Post reports, “the luxury fashion house’s shiny drawstring bag — which is made out of calfskin leather, emblazoned with a subtle logo and comes in the basic Hefty bag black along with the solid Glad-esque white as well as yellow and blue… is making its way to stores after debuting in the Fall 2022 ready-to-wear collection in Paris last March.”
Demna Gvasalia, creative director for the fashion house, admitted that the new item is akin to a stunt, and making the most expensive trash bag in the world is supposed to delight the masses, because “who doesn’t love a fashion scandal?” At the Paris show he noted that he “became a forever refugee” when he and his family fled the war in his native Georgia and connects the current conflict with Russia to his needing to highlight the “absurdity” of fashion as spectacle.
Do you think the Twitterverse and the social media scape stayed silent over this?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
The response was swift and scathing, with some pointing to the outrageousness of the bag’s existence, a live role play of the sublime becoming ridiculous, while others expressing used the opportunity to crack wise, the puns just writing themselves.
Balenciaga is the most disrespectful, funny brand ever. They really be trying it and people buy it man. I know that creative director just laughing. “Guess what imma make these Niggas buy now, a trash bag” lmaooo pic.twitter.com/mBW1KHdY07
— JAYHAWKS STILL CHAMPS (@Mr_Hoova) July 29, 2022
Marketing advice for @BALENCIAGA:
1. Tweet a couple of “woke” missives
2. Make large donations to to the DNC and a few key senators
3. Wait for Biden’s emergency executive order
4. Watch a $2 billion trash bag order roll in
(Wouldn’t hurt to buy a Hunter painting)
—
Ministry of Truth Double Agent
The “Post” listed some of the funniest and most intuitive social media responses to the new fashion accessory:
“I got 40 of those under my sink”
“It’s a CINCH some will be GLAD to own this bag, but they will have to pay a HEFTY price.”
“Whoever buys this needs to be thrown out in it.”
Other astute commenters compared “Trash Pouch” to the 2001 Ben Stiller comedy “Zoolander” in which his character models a fashion collection inspired by the homeless aesthetic:
“This is ‘Zoolander’ in real life with the clothing line Derelict. Where is Mugatu at this rate?”
But maybe Balenciaga is onto something, as one user seemed to express FOMO with a simple word: “need.”
But the Balenciaga bag is not the craziest thing to ever come out of the luxury fashion label, nor the first item inspired by the trash milieu.
Earlier this year Balenciaga released their new ‘Paris Sneaker’ collection, featuring high-top sneakers and mules that have been ‘distressed’ to the point of destruction in order to look like they have been “excavated from an ancient site or a landfill.”
If you are experiencing FOMO over these dirty shoes, they can be yours for $625 for the entry level pair, or, if you have more money than sense, S1,850 for the high-end kicks.
This story syndicated with permission from For the Love of News