There was a time towards the late 2010s when designers collectively refused to produce handbags bigger than the size of their palms. Simon Jacquemus was selling diminutive versions of his Le Chiquito handbags built to accommodate just a couple of credit cards, while Lizzo was posing on red carpets with a Valentino Garavani bag spacious enough to hold one singular tablet of chewing gum.
In time, an over-saturation of “me and my patience” memes and fast-fashion knock-offs led to the Thumbelina bag’s inevitable mainstreaming, and fashion’s pendulum therefore began to swing in the opposite direction: towards “ludicrously capacious” alternatives. Kim Kardashian was papped with an obscenely gargantuan Birkin, Harry Styles with a sizeable Margaux, and several NFL stars with hulking Amiri top handles, enormous Bottega Veneta totes and jumbo-sized Hermès bags worth £68,000.
The status-signaling, in-your-face power bag is, it would seem, back. See also: Cardi B, who was yesterday afternoon photographed strolling through Disneyland Paris with a metallic Chanel handbag so large that it dominated at least a third of her 5ft1” frame. (Cardi B is one of fashion’s most successful comedians.) The musician wore that $12,000 travel bag with a chiffon Dolce & Gabbana dress, Tabi ballet flats and a blunt-banged wig. She looked like PinkPantheress–who is never without her own second-hand handbags–in about 10 years’s time.