Some Context on the Lilliputian Hand-bags:
The whole conception of mini purses isn’t new – women have been carrying small hand-bags since the early to mid-1900s. In those times, these accessories were popular because they were considered to be a status symbol. Wealthy women liked to carry these excessively small bags because of their dainty and elegant appearances. The ability to carry around little to nothing was considered to be a privilege only granted to the rich.
More often than not, people who adopted this style of bags tended to belong to the affluent class – people who had a number of employees working at their disposal, running about to fulfill their every need (which gave them the luxury to not have to carry a world of things around). Moreover, women all over the world fell head over heels in love with purses of such distinctively small proportions because of how liberating it felt to carry them around. In addition of being liberating, the bags also promoted mobility – qualities that enveloped the women of the 70’s in a sense of new-found freedom. Increasingly, the fashion industry has been observed to have an insistent pull towards nostalgic fashion – the tendency of going back to the things we grew up with. This is probably one of the many reasons why we are now witnessing the come-back of petite purses.
The Elves who burned the Midnight Oil:
Designers have been playing with sizes and scales since ages. However, the first person to ever have created any significant impact in terms of actualizing the idea of mini-bags was Karl Lagerfeld, who with Fendi’s Spring/Summer 2015 collections initiated the modern mini-purse phenomenon. Soon afterwards, Simon Porte Jacquemus introduced his 3-inch top-handle purse, the Le Sac Chiquito, on the Spring/Summer 2018 runway of his namesake line. Immediately after the success of Le Sac Chiquito, Jacquemus announced that he would be coming out with Mini Le Chiquito, a purse which was reduced to two-third the size of its predecessor.
Soon after Jacquemus came out with his creations, designers all over the world started to explore the scope that the baffling demand for these impractical designs for bags posed. Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Versace, Maryam Nassir Zadeh, BOYY and Staud each came up their own versions of miniscule designs – some swung from the models’ neck as purse cum necklaces and others were small enough to be laced around wrists. The collections of Fall/Winter 2019 have seen an onslaught of miniature designs of bags and purses.
Prestigious Find: This season, Fendi has also brought back Carrie Bradshaw’s favorite mini bag, the Baguette.
Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Dua Lipa, Bella Hadid and many other celebrities are enamored with the current trend of tiny hand-bags. Recently, Blake Lively was seen to arrive at the red-carpet of Detective Pikachu carrying a purse that very closely resembled a Poke’ball. The gist of the matter is that the creations that this new trend is bringing to the forefront may not be all that useful, but they will be very nice to look at and very light to carry around – and if those are the qualities you look for while purchasing a bag or purse, then this is your season to rejoice. The wee hand-bags are officially back!
