When I was rooting through Céline’s brand new, e-commerce-ready website earlier this week to suss out all its details and features, I noticed something that surprised me: there weren’t any of the company’s Trapeze Bags, a longtime Céline favorite, listed anywhere in the handbags section. Not even under the “more” category, which houses the styles that aren’t among the handful Céline is hoping to capitalize on the most at the moment. Suspicious.
I had noticed in recent seasons that Trapeze representation in the brand’s handbag lookbooks was starting to dwindle, so the bag’s disappearance didn’t seem coincidental. I went looking for more information, and I found it in exactly the place this kind of news tends to originate: our own PurseForum, in the Céline section. Several of our members had been told by sales associates at Céline boutiques that the stores will not be buying new stock of the bag, and the brand is slowing phasing them out, with some colorways available at a 20% discount in the brand’s stores.
In historical handbag terms, the Trapeze is the Silverado to the Luggage Tote’s Chloé Paddington (all of which, it’s worth mentioning, were conceived under designer Phoebe Philo): although it was never the brand’s biggest success story during its heyday, it’s enjoyed massive, sustained popularity for years in its own right. It also, along with the Luggage Tote, helped popularize the flared gussets that still abound in the world of accessories design. Trapeze owners sometimes complained that the bag’s large size and top-flap structure made it slouch too much when carried by its top handle, but overall, I’ve always thought it to be a sleek, beautiful design that largely deserved its ardent following.
Are you sad to see the Trapeze go, or do you think its time has come?
