For a show titled Ugly Betty, perhaps progressiveness shouldn’t be high on our list of expectations. In a similar vein to several specimens of prime-time Y2K television, be it Paris Hilton’s A Simple Life or our very own Sex and the City, Ugly Betty too was riddled with stereotypes that wouldn’t fare all too well today; not to mention, a plot not entirely unlike its recent predecessor, The Devil Wears Prada.
But really, that’s the magic of comfort TV. You don’t (often fanatically) re-watch them quite for their intellectual caliber or cinematic value. You tune into them on rainy days and winter nights for a warm, fuzzy feeling of nostalgia. Losing yourself in their low-res broadcasts means transporting yourself back to simpler times.
For purse-obsessives such as ourselves, though, this also involves some major bag-watching, where we proudly dissect questionable designs and call out fakes where the occasion calls for. And it was during one such recent re-watch of Ugly Betty I stumbled upon an absolute gem of an episode centered specifically around a very special mid-aughts Gucci number!
But don’t worry if you can’t seem to recall which lineup it is that I refer to, for today, we are throwing it back to one of the most obscure (and some might say, obscene) collections characteristic to the Y2K – the Gucci 85th Anniversary capsule.
A Pop-Culture Treasure Trove
A massively popular show that came to the small screen in September of 2006, Ugly Betty traced the journey of Betty Suarez in what proved to be actor America Ferrera’s breakthrough role that brought her name to households within America and beyond. The show was an adaptation of the 1999 Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la Fea and has spawned countless iterations since.
The trope, of course, is all too familiar. Fish-out-of-water Betty lands a covetable position as the assistant to the Editor-in-Chief of the fashion magazine Mode, where, aside from Scottish seamstress Christina McKinney, seemingly everyone’s out to get her.
And in an episode cheekily titled Swag, Christina, in a bid to clear Mode’s designer inventory, hosts a swag lottery that turns the otherwise acerbic array of assistants into full-on fashion monsters as they fight it out for the prize.
However, the biggest prize of them all appears to be a highly specific Gucci hobo, furnished in velvet, inlaid in equestrian print, and finished with the quintessential Horsebit detail that Christina reserves specifically for Betty.
It was likely chosen by Patricia Field, who famously styled the show (she also puts Betty in a limited-edition Fendi Squirrel Spy later!) But while the bag-watching doesn’t stop there, Betty is later forced to trade the bag for her ailing dad’s medications, choosing to remain content with a counterfeit.
The 85th Anniversary Collection
The particular Horsebit hobo that made it onto the Ugly Betty set, was part of a much wider collection whose appeal seems to be rather limited to date. In fact, designed by Creative Director Frida Giannini, the 85th-anniversary lineup hit stores earlier in 2006, comprising the shoulder style and a Boston bag silhouette in a crop of skins and textures.
There was the Microguccissima leather, multicolor patchwork snakeskin, and croc, fur, and velvet tartan, alongside the classic monogram fabric hand-made in Florence, all sporting enameled plates engraved with the celebratory year of Gucci history.
Their circulation was also strictly controlled, sold through Gucci’s stores and Neiman Marcus only between July and December. It seems fitting, therefore, that the house would like to memorialize the collection with a commemorative TV appearance.
And yet, from the very beginning, the lineup was plagued by consumer dislike of the styles in general for their busy designs (yes, even by Y2K standards). Some shunned the use of fur and lamented the brand’s inability to restore its Tom Ford-era glory days.
The tail-end of the aughts brought the movement towards sleeker, logo-less styles, as evidenced by some of the more “fashionable” members of Mode magazine, like Wilhelmina Slater. And clearly, like Betty’s overly-colorful Hispanic frumpy librarian-chic, the Gucci 85th Anniversary collection didn’t stand a chance against up-and-coming minimal styles of the era.
An Investment in Nostalgia
In many ways, Betty’s response to what feels like the logical (although by no means choice) to trade off her purse resonates with us even more deeply now than ever.
Thoughtfully enough, the showrunners decide to include a plot point where the Gucci bag resembles a similar style to the one Betty’s mom used to carry. And isn’t it this trend towards nostalgia marketing that’s driving the archival revival trend these days?
Secondly, the entire premise of Christina saving the apparently desirable bag for Betty stems from the transformative power of fashion, where the character herself says, “I believe that fashion is good for the soul, for just how it makes you feel.”
It’s a school of thought that Betty herself subscribes to, confiding to her sister in a moment of vulnerability, “when I was walking around with my Gucci today, it was like I was three years old again and holding Mom’s purse. I actually felt pretty.” It is a real tear-jerker, especially if you, too, like myself, have fondled your dear handbags occasionally for a sense of comfort.
In a twisted turn of events, when Marc, the assistant who originally had his sights set on the bag, finally receives the handbag from Betty, his first response to smell it also strikes dangerously close to home – can we honestly say we’ve never done that?
When that turns out to be counterfeit, it further appears to be a dialogue on the issue of superfakes tormenting industry insiders today. So, today’s throwback is really as much of an ode to the Gucci Anniversary collection as it is to the foresight of Ugly Betty.
It goes to show, however, that so often, the little things make our purses dear to us. They may not be investments in the financial sense or even have sound resale value. But they’re definitely a window into our individuality. In a world full of sterile clackers, they’re the Bettys, ugly or not.
