Alexander Wang has had quite a year, winning the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund for 2008 and continuing to have his collections extremely well-received at New York Fashion Week. He hasn’t made a misstep yet and can seemingly do no wrong. Take the Rocco bag for instance. The designer reports that during his Spring 2010 collection trunk show at Barneys yesterday, the Madison Avenue flagship’s entire Spring 2010 handbag order sold out to pre-buys before a single bag ever even hit the floor. This must be one fabulous bag collection if it’s selling out like that, right? And yet one look at the Rocco and I feel completely underwhelmed. Why are Manhattanites scrambling to get their hands on a purse that looks to me like an overrated leather duffle bag? I fail to see the appeal. Sure, this could be one of those times when I’m just not able to see the potential (i.e. as I freely admitted re: the Chloé lace-up wedge boots yesterday)…but I don’t think so. My theory is that New York fashion mavens all want to be seen with NYC’s favourite fashion prodigy’s newest creation on their arm, regardless of what it actually looks like. What do you think – is the Rocco the next It bag, or is its success the result of a bunch of unwarranted hype?
xx, S
[...] think I have an open mind, so I’ve been revisiting the Alexander Wang Coco/Rocco bag since my snarky condemnation of it yesterday. With T coming to the bag’s defense and undeniable style icons like Rihanna [...]