Since Fendi debuted its Bag Bugs, and certainly since Prada pioneered the idea of high-end bag charms with its Bag Tricks years before, the fun little baubles have come in all sorts of versions and shapes: foods, animals, fictional characters, larger-than-life fashion designers. And now that the huge trend has died down into just another normal part of the accessories industry, a designer has finally chosen to explore the last frontier: a bag charm made in the image of human genitalia.
Simply called the JW Anderson Keyring, the minimalist strip of leather retails for $115 and includes two balls, a shaft, and a piercing that looks like it probably hurt. When paired with the JW Anderson Pierce Bag, which has a piercing of its own, the effect is…magnified. On the charm’s product page at Nordstrom, the description reads simply, “It’s not the size of the bag charm that matters.”
By my estimation, there will be two common reactions to this dick situation: mild offense that someone would charge that much for a little piece of leather, especially in a lewd shape, and people who are like, “Oh come on, it’s a fun joke!” I tend toward the latter camp; while it’s a bit ridiculous for anyone to pay three figures for a strip of leather shaped like a dick, that does seem to be the whole point of the joke. Isn’t paying three figures for any little bauble to hang on your bag kind of silly, dick or not?
In joking about it with friends, at least one brought up what struck me as a natural use: he said he knew plenty of gay guys who would love a black version to put on the bags they take to leather parties. And those guys are in luck, because although Nordstrom only bought the navy and yellow versions of the charm, JW Anderson has a full color range on his website.
