How handbags became affordable

I can still remember when $1,000 seemed an unimaginably vast amount to pay for a handbag. Then the recession happened and instead of the entire luxury market collapsing into a tired and emotional souffl�� of butter soft, crystal-smothered leather, something strange happened.

Bag prices, like Nanook, began heading inexorably north - and thenceforth to Pluto. Annual inflation of around 30 per cent on identical models was not uncommon. $1,200 ...$1,500 ... $3,000 ... $100,000 ... For this, granted, you got a few jewels and a suede lining that could be customised to match the interior of your jet. But still.

It was at this point that retailers began talking up the $1,000 bag as some kind of mythical "value" product - the luxury world's equivalent of a 24p tin of baked beans in Aldi. The world had gone mad, which was inconvenient if you happened to be a normal woman who wanted a quality product approximately halfway between the chain stores' stylish but not always durable offerings and the designers' flights of fancy.