It's in the Bag What Purses Reveal---And Conceal |
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| Author:
| Gallagher, Winifred |
| ISBN: | 978-0-06-113748-8 |
| Publication Date: | Oct 2006 |
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers
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| Imprint: | Harper |
| Book Format: | Hardback |
| List Price: | USD $19.95 |
Book Description:
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The time is perfect for a short, smart purse book. The "good bag" has nudged out shoes, jeans, and jewelry as the must-have fashion possession. Despite price hikes - $1,445 for a Prada bowler bag that once cost $940 - the craze for high-end purses helps fuel the booming luxury-goods market and, via knock-offs, hugely influences the $6 billion-a-year mainstream handbag industry. But purse mania isn't just an outgrowth of a strong luxury-goods market - human thoughts, feelings, and...
More Description
The time is perfect for a short, smart purse book. The "good bag" has nudged out shoes, jeans, and jewelry as the must-have fashion possession. Despite price hikes - $1,445 for a Prada bowler bag that once cost $940 - the craze for high-end purses helps fuel the booming luxury-goods market and, via knock-offs, hugely influences the $6 billion-a-year mainstream handbag industry. But purse mania isn't just an outgrowth of a strong luxury-goods market - human thoughts, feelings, and dreams are involved, too. As Nadia, a high-powered interior designer says, "My cell and my big Tod's purse - that is my life."
In IT'S IN THE BAG, noted journalist Winifred Gallagher explains it what means for a purse to be a life. This cultural history of the handbag borrows from psychology (Freud noted that sometimes a purse is a vagina - which is perhaps why the first "handbags" were carried by men!), sociology (a purse as a "status symbol") and even economics (Why have prices gotten so steep). Researched and erudite yet always fun, Winifred Gallagher offers in IT'S IN THE BAG a charming theory of modern identity as seen through one of our keenest obsessions.