Coffee table book alert: Assouline and Fashionphile have come together to create the ultimate guide to the most famous luxury handbags of our time. Available to shop now, the comprehensive 280-page silk cover- bound tome is an exploration of how 25 styles have become household names.
The Book of Iconic Bags celebrates twenty-five handbags, exploring the concept, craft, and stories behind them. The selection is curated by Fashionphile, the luxury ‘re-commerce’ side for pre-owned designer goods, which coincidentally celebrated its own 25-year anniversary not too long ago.
Priced at $120, the baby pink-hued book delves into Gucci’s namesake Jackie Kennedy homage, dissects what makes an Hermès Kelly so luxurious, charts the rise of the ‘00s-era Fendi Baguette, and gets behind the seams of a Chanel flap bag.
Speaking of iconic: at a launch event hosted at Fashionphile’s airy Manhattan showroom during New York Fashion Week, none other than Martha Stewart swung by. The mogul is notably immortalized in the chapter about the Hermès Birkin. An infamous paparazzi photo of her from 2004 carrying the glossy brown bag to court is accompanied by a quote from InStyle magazine at the time.
“It was a flex, to be sure. But Martha Stewart toting around a $10,000 Hermes handbag to a meeting with her lawyer is just the sort of insouciant opulence that captures the public imagination,” the pull quote states. “Tongues will wag. Is it in poor taste? Perhaps. But like Diana Vreeland said, ‘A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika.’ It’s not a memorable look without it. And when you’re ready on trial, what’s a little fashion controversy.”
Dutifully, at the cocktail party, the 84-year-old posed with said page — and the same bag! — some twenty years later after the image was taken.
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The book contains no shortage of history and context, with a plethora of archival runway images, fashion week street style, celebrity paparazzi shots, and images of notable figures including the late Princess Grace Kelly and Pharrell Williams.
As well as the aforementioned handbags, readers will find insight on era-defining arm candy from Jacquemus, Bottega Veneta, Goyard, Dior, Judith Leiber, and Louis Vuitton, among others.
Whether you’re an avid collector and a luxury savant or someone seeking inspiration and intel ahead of their inaugural designer handbag splurge, there’s something for everyone inside.
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