Women's appeal

On the HBO television series Sex and the City, about four stylish New York women, the character played by Sarah Jessica Parker programs her answering machine to tell callers,

"I’m probably out shopping for shoes." Later,manolo blahnik shoes, as she heads for a sleepover at her boyfriend’s apartment, she stashes her underwear inside her Fendi "baguette," this year’s hot

handbag.
In an era of understated classic sportswear, the baguette is a boisterous burst of ostentation. Encrusted with sequins and emblazoned with a double FF rhinestone buckle, the

$1,100 (U.S.) purse is a compact, horizontal number that tucks under the arm like a loaf of French bread. Captured in paparazzi shots on the arms of ingenues such as Kate Moss

and the socialite Miller sisters, the baguette took off, with an estimated 300,000 sold in just two years.
For the first time in the history of high fashion, extras are suddenly the stars.
Upscale accessories — for years the wallflowers of fashion — are driving sales, prompting a spate of deal-making and a reassessment of how the world dresses up. Look for a

success story in the business — whether it’s Gucci, Fendi, Manolo, or Kate Spade — and odds are there’s a shoulder strap or a pair of heels behind it.
This helps to explain why last month, European luxury goods giants LVMH Mo?t Hennessy Louis VuittonSA and Manolo Holding BV teamed up to snatch fashion house Fendi — purveyor

of the precious Sex and the City purse — for an estimated $900-million. The fact that Fendi — a brand that had been stone cold for years before the baguette — could fetch

such an stupendous price drew clucks among fashion insiders, all the while underscoring fashion’s current predicament.
Despite all of the hype surrounding runway fashion shows and the gowns worn at the Oscars, the fact is that high-end women’s clothing — a category that represents less than 20

per cent of America’s $80-billion women’s apparel business — has been a confounding market. With few exceptions, fashion houses typically lose money on top-tier collections.

New York consulting firm Tactical Research Monitor has estimated that sales of upscale women’s clothes have been flat to down over the past year.
"This media circus of the runway shows is all about selling products other than clothes," declares David Wolfe, creative director of Doneger Group. "It used to be designer

perfumes, but now its accessories."

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