Handbags and factory girls
I caught a brief glimpse of the BBC’s pre-emptive review show, The Story of the Noughties, last week. The bit that I saw was waxing lyrical about the importance of big name brand handbags and how, just two weeks ago, way back in 2009, no woman was complete without a vile, expensive but strangely tacky handbag on her arm.
By delicious co-incidence I happened to be reading a book called Factory Girls: Voices from the Heart of Modern China at the same time. Amongst the captivating and inspiring stories of the young immigrant women who make our shoes, mobile phones, televisions and trousers, was a chapter or two about a feisty young woman called Min who worked in yes, a handbag factory in Dongguan, a major manufacturing city in south-east China.
Min’s factory made loads of big name brand handbags and she and her colleagues nonchalantly nicked the bags left over at the end of an order. Leslie T. Chang, the author who followed Min’s life over several years, describes her factory dorm room as ‘awash in Coach bags’. For Min, the handbags’ value came as an easy gift for friends e.g. as a quick thank you to someone who let her kip over when she was job-hunting. But on most days the £££ bags were ‘worthless because almost no one in Min’s circle had any use for them or knew what they were worth’.
Maybe it’s just me, but I love the idea that somewhere in China a factory dormitory full of 20-something year old girls is disinterestedly kicking posh £300 handbags out of the way as they go out for a night on the town with their mates. And that’s how it should be.
Tags: marketing moments
January 11th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
A very pleasing tale which perhaps encapsulates the ‘noughties’ (which is a word I am never going to say out loud). Except of course we were also in thrall to expensive handbags in the eighties, did we not, and will no doubt continue to be throughout whatever we are supposed to be calling this decade (The Teenies? The Tweenies?). And of course we can be absolutely sure that on January 5th 2021 the airwaves will be awash with retrospectives harking back to the crazy-but-harmless-really-wasn’t- it obsession with expensive but worthless tat that we will all have all just grown out of. Myself, I’m planning to spend the entire decade styled as a person from a BBC retrospective, with shoulder pads, bellbottoms, a candy-stripe shirt, and a mobile phone the size of a washing machine.
January 12th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
A good story. I have never understood the Cult of Handbag. Like the Cult of Coffee, which also arose during the last decade, its followers are a mystery to me ( and one which I’m happy to let go unsolved.).
January 12th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Jonathan, I hate to think what the 2021 retrospective will be looking back on. Probably the 90s revival – when it was cool to wear plaid shirts and crochet, or at worst, Clint Boon hairstyles again. Shudder.
Hands up ISBW, I love the cult of coffee. It’s about time. When I first came to the UK it was easier to buy a decent cup in the service station of a small country town in Australia than in a London cafe. OK, an overpriced latte can be just as annoying as an overpriced Marc Jacobs handbag, but at least you can buy one!
January 12th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
I had an early lesson in the distance between the glamour of products and the reality of their production. In the village my Dad lives in there use to be a sewing factory for Burberry (before they were moved abroad). It always made me smile that people paid a premium for something made in a tin shed next to sulphurous coking plant.
The whole “I heart Handbags and shoes” thing is a odd modern thing I swear 15 years a go none of my female friends mentioned them or at least not in the way they are mentioned now. And of course a bag made for £1 that sells for hundreds is clearly obscene
January 12th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Oh, BLTP that’s a great story. Was that in Yorkshire?
I’m sick to death of handbags and shoes, two things I couldn’t really couldn’t give a toss about. I blame Sex and the City – which I don’t like either!!! I just don’t understand why we like playing up to stereotypes so much. Dull, dull, dull.
January 13th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
MrsB justifies her handbag/shoe purchases with the reasoning that she can never find clothes to fit. Of course she’d never dream of spending silly money on them either so we are not exactly awash with designer labels.
Oh, and Happy New Year all!
January 13th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Does this mean that you’re back Simon? Happy New Year and looking forward to reading some Canadian blog posts.
Re.Mrs Bs handbag and shoe purchases – I love the way people justify things. We all do it don’t we? I didn’t buy that expensive and lovely coat the other week so now to make up for it, I’m going to buy loads of DVDs this week. I do it all the time…
January 13th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
yep a little village in yorkshire was one of the former homes of Burberry now all you can get there is a tan, a quad bike and a STD! You can’t even get drunk as sadly half the pubs have closed.