The One-of-a-Kind Edit

A bag becomes one of a kind when the house made it once, in a small run, and then moved on. Chanel did this better than anyone under Karl Lagerfeld, turning the quilted flap into a milk carton, a hula hoop and a perfume bottle.

 

Among the eight in this grid, I would look first at the Chanel White Quilted Lambskin Hula Hoop Bag XL, the Chanel Blue Lucite Shipping Container Bag and the Chanel White Acrylic Minaudiere.

 

I like these because the joke is built into the craft. The bags below are listed by their original design names, so you can look each one up and read about the season it came from. If you want to start with a tour of Chanel's stranger ideas, The Collectible Chanel Edit goes deeper.

Louis Vuitton artist collaborations are the pieces where the monogram became a canvas. Among the eight in this grid, I would look first at the Stephen Sprouse x Louis Vuitton Monogram Roses Zippy, the Yayoi Kusama x Louis Vuitton Yellow Vernis Monogram Zippy and the Richard Prince x Louis Vuitton White Monogram Watercolor.

 

These are not reissues, they are the originals from those years, and the print placement, the hardware and the lining all tell you which release you are holding. For the full story on the two biggest names, see The Louis Vuitton Collector's Club.

Embellished Dior and Fendi bags are where the workshop shows. Fendi dressed its Baguette, introduced in 1997, in beads, sequins, velvet, fur and knits, while Dior in the Galliano years embroidered canvas and mixed in pony hair and mesh.

 

Among the eight in this grid, I would look first at the Christian Dior White Embellished Street Chic Columbus Shoulder Bag, the Fendi Silver Sequin Baguette and the Fendi Multicolor Falcon Baguette.

 

Pick up any of these and you notice the weight of the handwork first. I would wear the beaded Baguette over a plain black dress and let it do all the talking. More Fendi in this vein lives in The Fendi Archive.

These are limited designs that earned a place on a shelf of their own. Judith Leiber's crystal minaudières have been made in New York since the 1960s as small sculptures, and the rest of this grid is a mix of collaborations and novelty shapes that did not stay in production.

 

Among the eight in this grid, I would look first at the Judith Leiber Red Crystal Minaudière, the Miu Miu Black Nappa Crystal Flap Shoulder Bag and the Alaïa x Louis Vuitton Monogram Leopard Alma.

 

I would treat the Leiber pieces as objects first and bags second. The crystal work is the reason to own one, and you can see why it ended up in the hands of collectors. For more of that craft, The Art of the Evening Bag is a good next stop.

If you are new to this corner of fashion, start with the piece that made you smile first. A milk carton bag or a beaded Baguette will tell you more about a house than another black flap ever could.

 

Pick the design you can explain to a friend in one sentence, check the hardware and the lining against the listing photos, and then wear it often. These bags were made to be noticed, and they reward being carried.