But this is Kate Moss, style pioneer extraordinaire, and so no doubt it is about to be the new trend ¡ª cheap, and proud of it.

The 32-year-old supermodel was snapped with the bag last night as she left a party at Agent Provocateur, purveyors of saucy knickers to the young and fashionable.

It is white, it has a picture of a hippy chick surrounded by a cloud of butterflies and, well, it is probably terribly good value for money.

It has to be pointed out, however, that the ¡ê2.99 effort was not Moss¡¯s number one bag last night.

For her night out ¡ª which included dinner at J. Sheekey in Covent Garden ¡ª she had another, a leather one which one can assume cost a little bit more than three quid.

But cheap chic is all the rage ¡ª think of the praise heaped on Primark in recent months ¡ª and it is a fair bet that whoever made the Moss bag will see it fly off the shelves in the coming weeks.

They could even put the price up to ¡ê3.99 if they liked.

Moss has just made a series of short promotional films for the Agent Provocateur website, including one ¡ª directed by Mike Figgis, who made Leaving Las Vegas ¡ª in which she removes all her clothes.

The multi-millionairess is not the only one to espouse the fashionable virtues of thrift shopping, of course.

Only the other day footballer Wayne Rooney¡¯s fianc¨¦e Coleen McLoughlin advised girls not to spend like WAGs but to stick to cheap clothes from the high street.

A bag for ¡ê2.99 would be a good start, no doubt.

Just so long as they remember to leave the price tag on.