Before that, though, those checkered, reusable laundry bags you find in a pound shop and stuff were reimagined by Louis Vuitton in 2007. A decade later, Balenciaga’s Demna Gvasalia sent oversized market bags down the SS17 runway . Later that year, the house also released a style reminiscent of IKEA’s blue Frakta bag for £1,365 (a huge increase on the Frakta’s 40p retail price). It even led to the Swedish furniture store running one ,“How to identify an original IKEA Frakta bag” advertisement on its website. Menswear designer Christopher Shannon also got in on the action, repurposing Sports Direct’s large reusable bag and changing its logo to ,“Lovers Direct” for a modern approach to brand-obsessed sportswear.
A year later, Phoebe Philo’s Celine releaseda clear plastic bag in the shape of a supermarket carrier bag, revealing its entire contents to the mushrooms on the bus. And most recently, Westminster menswear graduate Lily Willan was directly influenced by the bag her grandfather took to work every day, creating briefs that followed a similar stripped shape and double handle.
Fashion has often dizzyingly removed ordinary products from our world and turned them into products of aspiration. Garbage has become a luxury, the bags stuffed under our kitchen sink are flogged for a hefty price. And we close it.
When Balenciaga first introduced the basket bags in March, they were planted in the middle of a deeply emotional show that creative director Demna Gvsalia used to highlight the ongoing war in Ukraine. Models battled wind machines and a man-made blizzard, clinging to coats and carrying trash bags, as if displaced people were escaping a war-torn country.
Garbage fashion makes a statement. Whether it’s homelessness, elitism, the environment or, indeed, war, it gets us talking. Controversial in most cases, yes, but isn’t that the point? Perhaps the context of the litter plays a role as well. When Balenciaga’s basket bags are placed on a store shelf – as opposed to a runway presentation – they take on an entirely different meaning. It gets funny. An inside joke that, to those who observe, is completely surprising. Who would pay over a fortune for a bin bag? Well, a lot of people. After all, fashion is trash.
