BLOG POST - 1ST AUGUST 2011
Kim Kardashian was seen last month looking just peachy at some airport in New York called JFK or something. Lovely Kim was seen carrying her Chanel quilted flap bag, priced at around the £2,200 mark. The designer handbag market makes up around 5% of the overall £5.4 billion pounds worth of handbags sales per year. The average price paid for a handbag is in the £20 to £35 price range. But what about the people who pay £1999 for a handbag, what is it about designer bags that drives some of us to question whether the mortgage payment is really important this month? Crazy, crazy people.
The current economic worldwide crises seems to have done little to dent Chanels confidence in its products as the brand recently announced 15% price rises across the board. It would seem their answer to navigate the choppy financial waters is to simply raise prices, that old textbook response. With Chanel handbags it seems to be a supply and demand type of situation which drives the prices up, not many of these bags are being made and this tends to keep the demand and price high. Most stores sell out of their Chanel handbags fairly quickly, even prices on ebay tend to be higher than the original retail price.
The usual arguments for the ridiculous prices of these bags are mainly that you are paying for luxury goods, with better quality materials, handmade sometimes, craftsmanship, expertise et cetera. The other side to the argument is simply that whilst the quality might be marginally better and the product might last a little longer, the main reasons are the advertising costs and fees paid to celebrities and models to endorse the brand and the expensive cocktail parties with the tables lined with cocaine and dwarf waiters carrying the pina coladas.
How can the handbag on the left be worth £2,200 and the handbag on the right be worth £9.99? 
On the £2,200 leather handbag, was the cow gilded and did its hooves never touch the ground, did it receive daily massages before it became a handbag and a lampshade? Will it hold up any better to the abuse the ladies dish out to it on the London underground when they are hustling and bustling around avoiding tramps and ticket inspectors. Each to their own really when it comes to buying expensive handbags, I suppose as long as you aren't getting into debt to pay for an overpriced item, who cares!
