A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Now a piece from the archives - The fashion archives, that is, NPR's Mansee Khurana brings us this story about a vintage purse style that's making a comeback.
MANSEE KHURANA, BYLINE: You may have never heard of the phrase kiss lock bag, but you've probably seen it.
LEXI LAUER: So a kiss lock bag is usually a frame style handbag.
KHURANA: That's Lexi Lauer, the media manager at Secondi Consignment, a thrift store in the D.C. area.
LAUER: And it comes together with usually two balls - it could be two rhinestones - whatever it is. And when you pinch them together, they twist around each other and they lock that way.
KHURANA: The clasp bag, like what your grandmother might have carried in the 1920s, has been making a comeback at brands like Coach and Marc Jacobs, thanks to interest in vintage-style handbags on social media. At New York Fashion Week last month, Coach debuted a new line of kiss lock bags in all different shapes and sizes, even one shaped like a teddy bear. But you don't need to buy a brand-new purse to jump on this trend.
LAUER: With vintage pieces, you get the real deal, the real leather, the hand stitching. It's worth the investment.
KHURANA: Lauer pulls down a fuchsia clasp bag off the shelf.
LAUER: This gorgeous silver palladium hardware. It's a good feel. The feet clicks when you put it down. It also comes with the detachable cross-body strap. So that is vintage timeless style made for the modern person.
KHURANA: But why are these old styles making a comeback? Well, for one, designers and brands like to reinterpret fashions from the past, like this black Gucci bag re-released in 2020 called the Jackie. Lauer pulls it off the shelf for me.
LAUER: It just - it's timeless. It's been around for 40 years, and it's still in demand.
KHURANA: She says it's inspired by a bag Jackie Kennedy Onassis used to carry in the 1970s.
LAUER: We like our trends. We like what's of the moment. But these are the pieces - like this handbag - that we're always going to love.
KHURANA: And leaning on that nostalgia has proven a successful formula for the fashion industry to the tune of billions of dollars over and over and over again.
Mansee Khurana, NPR News.
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