![]() However some bags, like the Hermès Birkin, continued to hold their value so collectors began to invest this amount of money," explains Koffsky. ![]() "After the recession in 2008 customer spending was way down. It is clearly an astronomical amount to spend on a handbag but, it appears, money well spent. Since then, the brand has worked with everyone from Takashi Murakami to Yayoi Kusama. Louis Vuitton in particular has worked with artists, beginning with Stephen Sprouse and his neon graffiti bags, under then artistic director Marc Jacobs in 2001. In recent decades this trend has accelerated as brands collaborate with artists to reinvigorate their classic designs. "She used a very common and fashionable shape but the decoration of it and the pattern of it are really representative of her involvement with the Wiener Werkstätte – the design movement that grew out of the Vienna Secession – and that type of aesthetic," says Savi. Hilde Wagner-Ascher, an artist and designer connected to the Vienna-based collective the Wiener Werkstätte, used the clutch as a blank canvas for her graphic designs. The appeal of the bag's creative potential to artists is evident as far back as the 1930s. These in turn had an impact on the jewel-like creations of Hungarian-US designer Judith Leiber, whose sought-after evening bags come in the shape of everything from bunches of asparagus to lipstick, and the British designer Lulu Guinness, whose flower-basket bags from the 1990s can be seen as a three-dimensional interpretation of floral reticule designs. It's almost like a blank canvas to work with." "There is a surface which can be decorated or painted on. They can be designed in very unusual ways, which is how they can easily become a dog, a frog or a little conker," Lucia Savi, curator of the V&A's exhibition, tells BBC Culture. "We don't really wear bags, we carry them, so they have this degree of independence. Classic creations by brands like Hermès, Chanel and Dior are increasingly being appreciated for their investment potential. But it is not only their aesthetic appeal that can be compared to art. ![]() This phenomenon has reached its logical conclusion in recent years, as brands collaborate with fine artists such as Tracey Emin and Marc Quinn to produce bags that would not look out of place in a gallery, which is indeed where they can be seen in the V&A's new exhibition, Bags: Inside Out. They are not required to enclose a part of the body, which has allowed freedom and inventiveness over the centuries, resulting in creations which are not mere fashion items, but works of art.
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