Shopping bag craze
A new craze has been born in the USA.
I’m not referring to over-sized purses but real shopping bags. The common plastic or paper bag we use to carry our groceries.
It all began about a year ago, when Anya Hindmarch designed and produced the now famous “I’m not a plastic bag” bag. An eco-friendly cotton tote bag created to replace the plastic bags being used in supermarkets.
Becoming more of a fashion accessory than an eco-shopping bag, the Hindmarch tote gave life to a case history.
This phenomenon has since spread across the USA. The desired object is no longer the content but the container! While walking around New York or Los Angeles, you can easily come across groups of young people toting colorful, branded paper bags.
Time has already proven that packaging is a primary brand vehicle. However, now the consumers themselves are generating the success of the ‘landmark‘, which is actually an item devoid of value.
Ironically, the range of dissemination of brand names through passive advertising is actually unknown to the companies themselves.
Marc Jacobs has certainly understood this tactic of subliminal advertising. He has already been selling his own branded shopping bags and, in his latest advertising campaign for Spring-Summer 2008, he’s pictured Victoria Beckham inside it.
Viktor & Rolf branded shopping bags are noteworthy and my favorites. They recall the ‘upside-down-ness’ of their monobrand shop in Milan. I also like the frayed cotton shopping bag by Martin Margiela.
Mandarina Duck has also been seriously studying the shopping bag.
As we’re well aware of the value of communication, our shopping bags reflect our product philosophy: simplicity, informality and a clean look.
Being Mandarina Duck bags, they bear both our logo and corporate colors (white and yellow). Our marketing staff has told me that the bag format is restyled every three years, both for retail requirements and for adaptation to new market trends.
They’ve also told me that we once created some special shopping bags to communicate the ideas of innovation and authenticity. And, sure enough, while rummaging around in some drawers, I found one of them and kept it! It’s grey with white writing saying “Mandarina Duck – Conduit Street 16” and was created especially for the innovative English shop designed by Marcel Wanders.
Technorati Tags: shopping bag, fashion accessory, Anya Hindmarch, Marc Jacobs, Viktor&Rolf, Martin Margiela
11 December 2008 at 03:34
Great product, nice site