I hate it when designers do this to me. I rant and rave all the time about what a raw deal it is for luxury consumers when brands try to use the power of their name to sell us things like the Marni Printed Vinyl Totes. Vinyl is not a luxury material, no matter whose hands have touched it, and these totes’ leather handles don’t let them off the hook. And yet, I would really love to carry both of these bags. Immediately. The cognitive dissonance that I’m having right now is intense.
Credit where credit is due – at $290 and $350, respectively, I’ve seen vinyl or canvas totes of a similarly simple structure that have been priced far more outrageously. On top of that, I love the patterns and colors of these totes; they’re bright but not quite neon, which means they won’t look massively dates in two months’ times. And of course the bags are functional. Totes generally are.
The prices, though, are an ever-present reminder of just how marked up luxury accessories tend to be. If the markup on top of the designer’s profit margin renders a $300 price tag for a tote that’s essentially made of plastic, just imagine how much money is being made off our purchases of $2000 leather bags. No, wait, don’t imagine that. It’s too painful. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $290 and $350, respectively.
