Flair

What if store paper-bags became more attractive to hold than the usual luxury It bags ?

Chanel paper bag by Jak & Jil

What if fashionistas, suddenly, were carrying their daily items in the very chic Lanvin blue paper-bag, the Chanel black or white boutique-bag with its camellia or any other fancy once which capture collective imagination throughout a symbolic sign of  luxury or the fantasy of a fabulous shopping experience ?

Lanvin paper-bag

This scenario, yet judiciously anticipated by Chanel with the Defilé shopping bag from Spring-Summer 2009 collection, is truly real in Japan. The International Herald Tribune spotted the trend and claims “paper bags as fashion statements”.

Chanel Defilé bag – Spring Summer 2009

“Logos and branding are so important. In a big part of the world, people cannot read French or English-but are great in remembering signs”. Karl Lagerfeld

From now on, Japanese girls prefer their favourites luxury boutiques paper-bag to their products !

This new trend seems to go with a meaningful quest of sense like environmental consciousness or the memory of a great purchase experience.

“I do not really like carrying eco-bags, but I am concerned by environment and do not want to show it that much”comments Asami Harada

“For me, shopping is a special occasion, …, the bag is remembering me what I felt when I bought the dress and the whole experience” Ayaka

The boutique-bag displayed on mannequin

Irony of the trend: some luxury brands’boutique paper-bags are now the purpose of a new trading on Internet and can be sold up to 15€/2000JPY for a Louis Vuitton paper-bag.