To the LV market we go....

Predictably, I am commenting on the latest apparitions unveiled at the Louis Vuitton spring/summer 2007.  You saw it coming right?  I had know idea I'd be posting about a label I hardly love twice in two days.  Well, to be honest, I just don't know what to make of these.  Clearly, Marc Jacobs is referring to the Mainland Chinese buying market that contributes greatly to LV's bag sales by creating 'lux' versions of the checked grocery bags so heavily used by Chinese households.  Yes, that is a stereotype but yes, it is unfortunately true that these bags do seem to be favoured by Chinese people all over be it Hong Kong or Mainland or wherever.  In fact, I have several quite large ones at home (and thank god too with the amount of clothes I have to shift!). 

What I'm not really clear about is whether Marc Jacobs is laughing at this sector of the market that brings in a lot of profit.  In which case, his generalisation about Chinese people using those bags could be looked upon as offensive.  It's kind of like someone from outside getting in on the inside joke.  Sure, amongst my Chinese peers, we acknowledge that these bags ARE indeed heavily used by a lot of Chinese people but having someone not Chinese commenting on it feels a tad strange.  I'm not personally offended but I can see how someone might be.

Is it a nod or a thank you gesture to the Chinese lux-goods consumer market?  Like 'Thanks for buying so much LV, here's a bag that is so you - enjoy!'?  Again, it's very ambivalent.

So much can be read into them that it baffles me.  The metaphor that the bag stands for, for a start can be read into to no end.  Freaky how just a few days ago, I likened the people I saw at the LV store in Paris to a 'market' and then comes these grocery bags. 

The thing is, and here comes another generalisation, I think the irony will be a little lost on Chinese people.  They will probably have a chuckle and point and laugh a bit.  But if this is poking fun at the buying power of the Chinese population, then the joke might just float over.  It's terrible to think that way but I do feel there's some degree of truth there.  Whether people actually buy this bag is also a mystery to me.  I'm guessing someone might buy it for the kitsch value and I'm guessing they'll be substantially cheaper than their normal bags which may be attractive.  If Chinese people have the ability to laugh at themselves then these bags will be perfecto.      

I just can't think whether to pat Marc Jacobs on the back or give him evils.  Too much to handle for a Monday especially for my tired little brain.  Right, now please proceed to shoot me for incorrect wording and over-generalisation.   

Comments

[ambika]

Those bags are actually very similar to versions I saw carried by *everyone* in the Czech republic. There were shopping bag versions and some nearly the size of suitcases. I can remember seeing people get off at the bus depot with the suitcase versions just stuffed full of goods from the EU. I can see the irony of taking such a recognizably cheap product, especially one meant to imitate couture, and making it expensive again. And then you factor in the whole knock-off market & it enters a level of Warholian paradox. Is it art? Is it high end?

[Erin]

They're as common as muck, and as cheap as chips in Australia too. When I was little, whenever we went on camping trips / holidays, each child (I'm the eldest of eight!) would have their own bag like that, with their name on it, and we were only allowed to take as much as we could fit into that one bag :) Ah, memories of family economy ;)

As an aside - when I first saw the pics, I actually thought to myself 'I wonder if they're sending these out, because they're updating their bag designs / monogram, and don't want them being copied and mass-produced before they even hit the LV shelves'.

[The Glossy]

I think these bags are MJ's way of 'getting even' with the Chinese knock-off market that has so tainted the LV logo. What now...they're going to knock-off their own cheap market bags?? And in turn will the insatiable shoppers pay full-price for one with the LV stamp on it? V. funny and v. clever on MJ's part.

[annie]

i can't see the pics, but i can well imagine what the bags look like! they are common around here, especially in chinatown.

[The Glamour Bee]

I don't see many Asian people carrying these bags here in NYC. In this city they're mostly sold in discount stores located in low-income neighborhoods. Before I read your post I may have wondered if he were making a comment on that!

[dimes]

ambika is on point. these bags are carried by *everyone* who visits a food market, not just by the chinese. i think MJ is questioning what is luxury and what are the characteristics that define it. he's also making fun of fashion victims, not only asian fashion victims. imagine some wealthy person, dressed to the 9's, walking around with this ugly bag... bwyahahaha!

last point. they are so cheap to manufacture that the profit LV will turn from these bags will be unprecedented in the luxus goods biz. LV will laugh all the way to the bank.

[susie_bubble]

Wow... does everyone else use these bags? I think I grew up thinking it was a very Chinese thing and one time at an airport, I even overheard an American couple commenting on what a Chinese thing it was to use those bags as luggage.
Must be my misconceptions...... they do sell them in discount stores here as well but in no way does everyone use them for grocery shopping....

[Stephanie]

Exactly what everyone else is saying. Here in NYC, they have a very down-market connotation, but they're not associated with any particular ethnic group. I'd definitely put it in the 'witty' category and nowhere near 'offensive.'

[susie_bubble]

I do apologise if I have offended anyone. Must be how I interpreted it since I really did grow up thinking it was a very Chinese thing!
From everyone's perspective here these bags were a witty move and I don't find them offensive or anything. There's just a lot of ways of reading into them IMO......

[d]

a lot of nigerians use those bags. not as hand bags to be worn in public.

but like susie does, as storage for everything.

i bet you h&m is going to sell them next year as beach bags.

[Sam]

Now there's a bag that Chinese counterfeiters could easily 'knock off' (though they came up with the idea first ironically)- just stamp the LV logo on. I think they're the greatest bags ever- cheap and huge, you can just dump all your camping gear or whatever and drag it across the floor. Genius!

[ruth singer]

yes, they are everywhere and are just cheap. I am about to buy loads to pack up and move my studio contents! At the V&A they use giant ones with stuffing as portable seating for events. Many uses for your cheap and nasty bags. But for me, even if they have LV logos, they are still cheap and nasty bags and I wouldn't want to be seen in public with one!

[sammi]

i really do wonder how much they'll be selling for tho.. I find the concept witty but it's got to the point where if ppl do buy these for no matter what price it proves ppl really ARE just buying the logo and the argument that so many of my chinese relatives use of "we buy LV for it's quality of materials" goes out of the window. interesting experiment MJ injeresting indeed...

[shopdiary]

don't beat yourself up too much about possibly offending anyone, susie. those are cheap market bags and they are everywhere.

the joke is on us, i tell ya. "it's lv. they'll love it!" lvmh will be laughing all the way to the bank.

[jasmine]

i do understand where you're coming from. in toronto, those bags are sold in tons of stores in chinatown.

[alice-chan]

my new goal when i visit new york this february?
get A TON of those bags from chinatown
i LOVE the fact that they have all these hidden meanings
they would be great purses for school
clashing with my plaid skirt
ok to get dirty and trashed
the original thing!
thanks susie!

[Tia]

Lol...who ever imagined that one day, Marc Jacobs would be putting the Louis Vuitton stamp on the exact kind of bag my grandmother carries? (we're not chinese,either)

How interesting!!

I think you are reading a bit too much into it - they are very common in Europe as well - in fact I have 4 myself. I doubt it's Marc Jacobs mocking the Chinese market - if anything I am sure he is greatful that they do spend so much money on his UGLY products.

[Casey]

I'm enjoying all the commentary here; interesting thoughts/perceptions into the LV bag. But frankly, I'm rather anti-logo (at least, I don't like my logos to be big and bold) so I think the LV is rather tacky. Albeit, tongue-in-cheek. ;)

[amee]

i grew up seeing those bags in sf chinatown. interesting. but it's hard to tell if he's poking fun at the chinese population or just turning something not normally seen as fashionable into something trendy. perhaps that's the beauty of the product. on the other hand, if he put chinese characters all over it, it'd be way too obvious. subtlety is key. btw, i don't give a sh*t about LV.

[a.]

i've seen these bags all over the world - india, mexico, all across the mediterranean - as well as in china. and in american chinatowns. it's just a cheap plastic bag used by people who don't have money. the markets in tunisia had ones in particularly beautiful color combos, and i ended up buying two. i think it's obnoxious that marc jacobs is appropriating it and plastering the LV logo all over it, but of course, the commenters above are right, at the same time it's brilliant, and he's gonna be laughing all the way to the bank.

[SRR]

I used to think it's a really Chinese thing to use these bags, but here in LA I've seen them used by non-Chinese Angelenos. If nothing else, they're really tough and practical (I use one to haul around laundry).

When I first saw the runway pics, I felt a bit slighted as well, but that feeling quickly melted away and I was soon laughing at what a great joke it was. I love that kind of humor...

[Natty]

I dont really think that these bags are culturally specific although they generally do signify cheap, poor and working class - perhaps this is an extension of the posh chav look - big cheap old laundry bags with an LV logo, sounds like a seller to me!

[linda]

ewwww...I don't care if it is LV or not but I can't imagine anyone buying those bags.......

[erika]

maybe MJ is trying to make a trip to the supermarket or the laundry mat a stylish affair! stamp a high-end logo on a standard piece and it is all of a sudden stylish. and erin is right, it is MJ's way of getting even. people make knock-off's of his bags, so he will make knock-off's of theirs.

[Jess]

Very interesting... how much do they retail for? Will be a good thing if they actually prove how ridiculously over-the-top and unrelated to actual materials the prices of LV and the like are... And the original designer should sue MJ for ripping off the look! Great blog by the way :)

[michelle]

I think MJ is trying to invert the idea of luxury rather than commenting on a specific culture - I'm also thinking of those canvas LV bags that he did recently.

[fash ho']

haha. jamaicans use those too. those are international 'barjun' storage bags.

[Su-Ying Lee]

Obviously from all the comments the bags are just a practical thing. I've purchased them in a pinch when I travel and bought more than my luggage can hold.

I don't care if LV is making them a "Chinese thing". The laugh is on the fashion victims who purchase them.

[SwanDiamondRose]

i thought they were south american. i got mine in mexico. this commentary has been enlightening. i use huge versions of these to keep my fabric collection in. i like the canvas ones better. these look a bit boring, even as some sort of clever joke on we're not sure what.

MJ is taking a lo-fi object and translating it into high fashion - it seems interesting :)

[Amanda]

Haha, nice, I think MJ is quite clever if he is trying to offend fashion victims especially those chinese fashion mobs.
BTW I am chinese myself.

it should be noted that irony is often only 'understood' as a system of meanings when it exists within advanced stages of capitalism. (would a poor person in china or jamaica or wherever think of their use of these types of bag as 'ironic' or 'funny'? only from a position of privilege do these bags appear so.) the 'LV' customer will probably get it and shell out for this. the wannabe 'LV' customer will buy the overpriced knockoff which will still extend the brand reach and prestige. others think it silly, but at least they're thinking about LV. either way, LV wins.

[Claire/Lola is Beauty]

The check used on those bags is the signature check of Tati, the famous French cheap as chips budget store, which have locations in Paris. Azzedine Alaia also once did a collection featuring the Tati check so MJ might have been referencing that too. I don't think of those bags as anything other than laundry bags or something strong, waterproof and cheap if you need to carry a lot of stuff. They don't have any other connotations to me.

[julia]

i actually know these bags since i was little and i thought for some time they are only some Polish idea (on Polish grocery markets and countryside; and i think they still exist there, though i'm not sure, coz i havent observed for a while..) and it was a bit embarrassing to me (let's say, seeing somebody with such bag going into a city or on a bus; but why.. we're all human:).. but then of course i thought probably all Eastern Europe has it. as i read now they're ubiquitous, though, maybe they actually come from China as it is well known for mass production of cheap things. no offence!

[berlinrocks]

I just love this bag. Helmut Lang already did something with this "cheap print" (bags, belts, wallets etc.)

[aiar]

Representing the southern hemisphere: those bags are also a staple in South Africa :)

[amelia]

this bags exist everywhere. marc jacobs isn't trying to slight the chinese! i think its interesting that a 'status bag' label like louis vuitton would feature these shopping/grocery/fruit market bags and interepret them in their own way w/ the LV stamp/logo.

[charmaine]

i'm kinda of chinese descend, but i'm not living in china if u get what i mean and (weirdly) i have not seen anyone carrying this around unless it's some random tourist at the airport. so maybe its kinda stereotypical? but LV's design made me laugh pretty hard.

personally, i think the bag by LV is ugly, kitschy yes but other than the possible use of it for a (weird) beach bag, there is not much appeal to it cause it looks so cheap

[chibiix3]

i live in hong kong and yes, i do own some of those big plastic bags [stuffed in the back of my closet]. they're not the prettiest things alive but they do the job of holding everything. but i would like to point out these bags are stereotypical.
it's just.. weird that a designer logo brand would come out with these bags. they are slightly nicer looking than the real thing.. with the extra logo stamped on it.

some sense of humour.

[hoyan]

I think the LV bags are pretty funny... I highly recommend checking out the work of anothermountainman; it's hard to describe but it's incredible and about how integral these materials are to Hong Kong.

[illiniamy]

Wow, that is pretty funny! I think it is definitely a tongue-in-cheek product (not being offensive towards Chinese). I do have a very large one at home, I could probably make a tote sized one from that one! It's kind of like those totes made from capri sun juice packs or fruit juice boxes. Purses made from unique materials. Now what would be next? Idaho potatoes? Coffee bean sacks?