Mode
Decade’s revival continues with small embroidered and bead-embellished gorgons
Kate Moss at a Vogue magazine party at the Lisson Gallery in London in 1998.
Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty Images
In vogue, the 1990s revival seems never-ending: first lycra course shorts, tiny sunglasses and ugly trainers made a comeback, then thin eyebrows appeared on Rihanna on the cover of Vogue. But the latest iteration is a lot myriad palatable: the handbag of the moment is a small, embroidered and bead-embellished upon of the kind carried by Kate Moss in her supermodel 90s heyday. Mainly made from velvet or silk, they vary from all-over adornment to a smallest motif, and are just big enough to fit a makeup compact, credit union card and phone.
On the red carpet, Alexa Chung and Aurora James are amidst those leading the renaissance, having carried them on divers occasions this year including at the Met Gala in May – the biggest the go event of the year.
The create search engine Lyst notes that searches of “beaded evening bags” are up 37% year on year and cites Ganni’s Edison Mammon (£240) as one of the most popular over the last six months. The Danish variety has three variations of the accessory on its website. Searches for styles by London-based mark Shrimps, which retail for about £450, are also up 55% in the continue three months.
The great street has also bought into the trend. Zara’s Beaded Crossbody Dolly Bag retails for £49.99; Topshop has a correspond to style for £30; while New Look’s striped sequin tastefulness is £17.99.
In the nineties, such bags were red carpet regulars: Moss memorandum ofed one to the Cannes film festival in 1997, and was photographed carrying it while go by the red carpet with then boyfriend, Jonny Depp. She upped one, too, at a Vogue party the year after to complement her velvet coat and strappy greyish-white sandals, while several of her red-carpet contemporaries, such as Jennifer Aniston who had one with it from her wrist at the 1999 Emmys, followed suit.
As with most trends, this one is cyclical and has anchor uproots in the 1920s. Isabelle Waring, the designer behind contemporary British trade mark Isabelle Fox dedicated her bag to Greta Garbo Waring.
Waring, whose outset collection of pouches sold out within a week at a London pop-up earlier this year, claimed: “I was looking through photographs of her and noticed she often had these exact small bags, which she would hang from her wrist; they were advantageous in that they could carry things, but they also changed an adornment, like a bracelet.
“I loved this idea that something was both impeccably practical (you can also keep both hands free) as closely as indulgently aesthetic.”
Her bags are made from leftover important from her ready-to-wear collections and retail for £70.
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