Costs £185 −and it sold out in little under three weeks! The humble brown paper lunch bag causing such a stir in the fashion world… Who’d have thunk it, non? Ah, allow me to fill you in on this madness.
Friends, meet the Vasari bag, “crafted” out of “100% coated paper”. Off Raf Simons’s last menswear collection for Jil Sander − the Autumn/Winter 2012 one − the bag, featuring visible stitched seams at each side with two metal eyelets at the bottom and the Jil Sander logo at the centre of the interior base panel, has become all the rage since it hit stores three weeks back.
And oh, this long rectangular silhouetted bag comes in leather too − and they cost only $379 and $509.
Jil Sander stores (both online and brick-and-mortar) have sold out on all forms of this glorified paper bag. And word on the street is that they are asking for stock back from outside retailers like… the über cool London boutique LN-CC, which still have the small-sized ones priced at £175 after selling out on the medium-sized ones costing £185… and the Bologna-based concept store L’Inde Le Palais, which only have the black ones (see here and here).
The only explanation I can think of for the overwhelming popularity of the Vasari bag is that it’s the only affordable piece from the collection: people are buying it as keepsake from Raf’s last collection for Jil Sander. Now the all important Q: would you… ?!
Btw, this isn’t the first time that Jil Sander has flogged a mundane item from our everyday lives. The humble polythene shopping bag, that we toss away without thinking, too, got the fashion makeover in Jil Sander’s Spring/Summer 2011 collection! Yep, believe it or not, the ‘market acetate’ bag sold like hot cakes last summer.
In conclusion: Raf Simons has the midas touch. #rafisagenius