Luxury Handbags: How Brands Make You Beg for a Purse
by Thea Elle | March, 16, 2025 | Luxury Accessories
Luxury handbags are not just accessories; they are strategically designed illusions of wealth. If you think you’re buying a bag, think again. You’re buying a membership into an exclusive club where the only requirement is your willingness to spend an obscene amount of money on leather and branding.
The industry doesn’t thrive on practicality or necessity—it thrives on desire, manipulation, and the ultimate marketing flex. The more difficult a bag is to obtain, the more desperately people want it. Brands like HERMÈS, CHANEL, and LOUIS VUITTON have perfected this formula: limit supply, increase prices, and make customers jump through flaming hoops just for the privilege of spending their money.
It’s not about the bag. It never was. It’s about the illusion that carrying a HERMÈS BIRKIN or a CHANEL FLAP makes you part of a rare breed of people who have “made it.” But have you? Or have you just paid a premium for well-marketed leather?
Let’s unravel the luxury handbag hoax—and how these brands have turned shopping into a psychological battlefield.
THE EXCLUSIVITY HOAX: IF YOU CAN’T BUY IT, YOU WANT IT MORE
Luxury brands know that desire isn’t created by quality—it’s created by restriction. If anyone could waltz into a store and buy a BIRKIN off the shelf, it would lose its aura of exclusivity. And we can’t have that, can we?
That’s why HERMÈS won’t just sell you a Birkin—you have to earn it. You think you’re the customer? No, you’re the applicant. If you walk into an HERMÈS boutique asking for a Birkin, the sales associate will give you the same look as if you had just asked to buy the Mona Lisa.
Want one? Prepare to build a purchase history—meaning, you must first spend thousands of dollars on scarves, shoes, and homeware items that you didn’t actually want before they graciously allow you to buy the bag you actually came for.
And then there’s CHANEL, the gold medalist in Olympic-level price inflation. A Classic Flap cost around $2,850 in 2010. Today, it’s over $10,000—and for what? The design is the same, the materials are the same, and the only thing that has changed is the price and the amount of tears shed by customers at checkout.
These brands don’t just sell handbags—they sell barriers to entry. They create an environment where customers feel like they have to prove their worthiness to own a bag. And nothing makes people want something more than being told they probably can’t have it.
THE HANDMADE MYTH: YOU’RE PAYING FOR A LOGO, NOT MAGIC
Every luxury brand loves to push the romantic fantasy of craftsmanship. They paint images of artisans hunched over their workbenches, meticulously hand-stitching each bag while classical music plays in the background.
Reality check: your handbag was most likely made in a factory.
Yes, some brands employ skilled artisans for final touches, but the majority of production is far from the candlelit, old-world craftsmanship fairytale they want you to believe. And let’s not forget that some of these luxury bags aren’t even full leather.
Take LOUIS VUITTON, for example. Many of their bags, including the Neverfull, are made of coated canvas—which is just a fancier term for plastic with a leather trim. Yet, they’re priced as if they were woven from the golden fleece itself.
This isn’t to say that luxury handbags are poorly made, but let’s be honest—if the quality alone justified the price, they wouldn’t need billion-dollar marketing campaigns to convince you. What you’re really paying for is the privilege of being associated with the brand name.
DOES IT REALLY HOLD VALUE? (NO, UNLESS YOU’RE FLIPPING IT)
One of the greatest marketing cons in history is the idea that luxury handbags are an investment. It’s true that certain rare Birkin appreciate in value, but those are the exception, not the rule. For most handbags, the moment you step out of the boutique, the resale price drops faster than a car’s value once it leaves the dealership. This whole “investment” myth is fueled by artificial scarcity. Brands like CHANEL increase prices multiple times a year under the guise of “maintaining exclusivity,” but in reality, they’re forcing customers into a panic-buying frenzy before the next price hike. And who benefits? The brands and resellers—not you.
If you have to ask how much it is, you can’t afford it. Or at least, that’s what they want you to believe.
FLIPPING BAGS OR FOOLING YOURSELF? THE MYTH OF HANDBAGS AS “INVESTMENTS”
The resale market thrives not because handbags are assets, but because brands manipulate demand. Resellers exploit the desperation of buyers who missed out, listing bags at ridiculous markups. And what do buyers do? They cave, convincing themselves that overpaying is better than not owning the bag at all.
But let’s be real: if your LOUIS VUITTON Neverfull is your retirement plan, you might want to rethink your financial strategy.
THE FINAL SNAP: IT’S JUST A BAG
Luxury handbags will never lose their allure, not because they’re life-changing accessories (spoiler: they’re not), but because brands have mastered the art of social psychology. They’ve convinced us that a handbag is not just a handbag—it’s a symbol of success, belonging, and self-worth.
But let’s strip away the branding for a second.
At the end of the day, a handbag won’t make you more sophisticated, more successful, or more important. It will, however, make luxury brands richer while you convince yourself that spending $10,000 on a leather purse was a rational decision.
So, will people stop buying into the madness? Probably not. Because at the end of the day, nothing screams status louder than an overpriced bag with a logo.
