A handle on the noughties: ‘It’ bags grab younger generation

“I just got my Stam bag and I’m so obsessed,” says 24-year-old TikTok user stxphxny1, twirling a black Marc Jacobs Stam bag around in front of a mirror. “She is stunning.”

Stxphxny1 was six years old when the Stam bag, a large quilted handbag named after Canadian model Jessica Stam, was first released in 2005. She purchased the bag shortly after Marc Jacobs re-released it last month, accompanied by a campaign starring Stam and fellow noughties stars Paris Hilton, Ashanti and Selma Blair.

“I love the whole 2000s era — I’m constantly going through my mum’s wardrobe and stealing things from her,” stxphxny1 says in an interview over Zoom. Before buying the Stam, she acquired another popular early-2000s accessory, a Balenciaga City bag (also known as a Lariat or Motorcycle bag, released in 2001) and is on the hunt for a Dior Saddle bag (DOB: 1999). 

The Stam, the Lariat and the Saddle were all part of the 2000s “It” bag tribe — those recognisable, must-have accessories born around the dawn of the millennium that quickly reached cult status. Many of these, including the Michael Kors Astor (2004), the Prada Nylon (2000), the Fendi Baguette (1997) and the Dior Saddle, have recently been re-released by luxury brands looking to tap into early-2000s style nostalgia and recoup transactions that would otherwise be lost to second-hand marketplaces and resale sites.

In the early to mid-2000s, I was in my early teens and definitely not a luxury shopper, but the “It” bag phenomenon didn’t leave me untouched. I remember trying to convince my mum to buy a quilted Marc Jacobs bag in Saks during a trip to New York in 2006 because Marissa Cooper had sported a similar one in an episode of The O.C.. I also remember developing a fascination for leather satchels after the launch of the Mulberry Alexa, named after Alexa Chung, in 2010.

Julie Gilhart, chief development officer of fashion showroom and brand incubator Tomorrow London, was the fashion director of New York department store Barneys between 1992 and 2010, when most “It” bags came to the market. It was a time when handbags — and what they signalled — was rapidly changing, she recalls. “If you carried a Balenciaga bag you were cool, if you carried a Fendi or a Dior bag you were rich, and if you carried a Prada or a Chanel bag you had status,” she says.

They became big business drivers. When Tom Ford released his version of the Gucci Jackie, named after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and priced at $575 in October 1998, he sold more than 30,000 units in less than a year. At the time, leather goods (excluding shoes) accounted for 44 per cent of Gucci’s $1bn of sales. The category has continued to grow, making up 52 per cent of the brand’s €10.5bn in sales in 2022. (Gucci’s latest creative director, Alessandro Michele, released his take on the Jackie in 2020).

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Back in the early 2000s, “It” bags sat on the cusp between fashion and celebrity culture, with consumers valuing the image of the brand as well as the celebrity association. Celebrity culture was reaching new heights, fuelled by reality television shows such as The Simple Life (2004) and The Hills (2006), and the launch of gossip sites such as TMZ (founded in 2005) and PerezHilton.com (launched in 2004). There was also, of course, Sex and the City — the show that almost single-handedly bestowed “It” status on the Fendi Baguette.

“As celebrity culture evolved and more celebrities were photographed wearing certain bags, the aspirational appeal of the ‘It’ bag really took off,” Liane Wiggins, head of womenswear at Matchesfashion, writes via email. “I remember saving up for a Chloé Paddington and the desire for owning this particular bag was stronger than any other purchase I can recall.”

Today, the bag market is more fragmented. Customers have become savvier, celebrities have lost ground to a multitude of influencers and content creators, and social media has accelerated the trend cycle, with different trends coexisting at the same time.

“There is this really informed, very aware, deeply astute luxury fashion shopper who cares deeply about brands and knows the history and relevance of these products,” says Katy Lubin, brand and communications vice-president at shopping platform Lyst. “I don’t think we are going to see ever again one dominant aesthetic that defines how people dress for a season anymore. There are always going to be interesting pockets and niches — different things happening at the same time.”

Perhaps the only bag to achieve “It” status in the past decade is the Telfar bag, which is embossed with designer Telfar Clemens’ initials and costs between $191 and $322. Also known as the “Bushwick Birkin” and worn by the likes of US politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and talk show host Oprah Winfrey, it debuted in 2014 and still regularly sells out on the official website, where it’s restocked weekly.

Can these brands recapture the same success as the originals? Industry players are divided. “It’s very clever, but I don’t believe that these re-releases are going to be a long-term relaunch,” says Robert Burke, a retail consultant and former senior vice-president at New York department store Bergdorf Goodman. “In fact, I’m quite sure we have almost already moved on.”

“The story that goes along with these relaunches gives a brand a way to talk about their history,” counters Tomorrow London’s Gilhart. “One of the critical things in marketing right now is storytelling, but they are not a marketing ploy. They definitely can drive volume.”

Personally, I haven’t felt particularly drawn to any of the recent re-releases, mainly because I would rather buy a vintage model, which in my eyes holds more authenticity. But buying re-releases is undoubtedly easier than scouring second-hand websites, so I understand the temptation.

For stxphxny1, it all boils down to personal taste. “It’s not so much about trends, it’s what you like,” she tells me. Usually a buyer of vintage bags, she made an exception for the Stam re-release because she already had a vintage Stam, which belonged to her mother, and wanted one that could be just her own. She doesn’t think people will recognise she is wearing a Stam bag unless they have a particular interest in fashion, but it doesn’t matter to her. “To me the Stam is just a really practical bag. It can be a handbag or a shoulder bag. It’s casual, but it’s also kind of dressy,” she says.

In her view, brand re-releases show shoppers that they should keep hold of the fashion items they love and continue to use them. “There are so many bags out there that people keep in the back of their closets,” she says. “Re-editions reinforce the idea that if you hold on to these things, they can come back.”