Cardi B saw the mini bag trend and said, nah.
There was a time towards the late 2010s when designers collectively refused to produce handbags bigger than the size of their palms. Simon Jacquemus was selling diminutive versions of his Le Chiquito handbags built to accomodate just a couple of credit cards, while Lizzo was posing on red carpets with a Valentino Garavani bag spacious enough to hold one singular tablet of chewing gum.
In time, an oversaturation of “me and my patience” memes and fast-fashion knock-offs led to the Thumbelina bag’s inevitable mainstreaming, and fashion’s pendulum therefore began to swing in the opposite direction: towards “ludicrously capacious” alternatives.
Kim Kardashian was papped with an obscenely gargantuan Birkin, Harry Styles with a sizeable Margaux, and several NFL stars with hulking Amiri top handles, enormous Bottega Veneta totes and jumbo-sized Hermès bags.
The status-signaling, in-your-face power bag is, it would seem, back. See: Cardi B, who was photographed strolling through Disneyland Paris with a metallic Chanel handbag so large that it colonized at least a third of her frame. See the photos of the gargantuan bag here.
The musician wore that ravel bag with a chiffon Dolce & Gabbana dress, Tabi ballet flats and a blunt-banged wig. She looked like PinkPantheress – who is never without her own second-hand handbags – in about 10 years’s time.
It’s another hilariously extra look from Cardi B, one of fashion’s most successful comedians.
This story was first published in British Vogue.
