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Tasteful or tacky?
Controversy brewed online after fashion fans got a taste of Balenciaga’s latest kitschy accessory — a clutch shaped like a to-go cup of coffee.
The cost of the $5,750 Balenciaga-branded 9AM Coffee Cup Clutch Bag makes it the priciest cup of joe you can buy — and you can’t even drink it.
While Lauren Sanchez, who is set to marry Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos in Venice, was spotted toting the brand’s latest trompe l’oeil item, the internet was divided over whether the purse was stylish or “silly.”
“I love a statement, fun bag. But this is just silly,” scoffed one person on Reddit, adding they “want to know who is buying this.”
“Yes, when I saw it, I was like they are playing rich people right? Bc listen I love a nice designer bag, but this is beyond stupid. Doesn’t even come with a strap literally a cup/bag?!?” one baffled fashionista wrote.
“I would accidentally throw it away,” another chimed in. “There are many other ways to throw away $6000.”
“Balenciaga is s–tposting for people with too much money and zero taste,” quipped one user.
“I think it’s sort of fun, as a joke really. But would I buy it? Absolutely not,” someone else agreed, noting that it’s “for people who have far too much money.”
“This brand just keeps digging itself deeper and deeper into ridicule,” chided another.
“It looks like a $5.00 Starbucks cup,” one person wrote online.
“If you have that kind of money to spend on something so frivolous you are what is wrong with this world,” someone else said. “Who in their right mind would buy that???”
But this isn’t the first style stunt Balenciaga has pulled.
The controversy-riddled Spanish fashion house is known for its eclectic accessories, such as its garbage bag satchels, totes made to look like grocery or shopping bags, potato chip purse and stiletto clutch.
And the java pocketbook is just the latest in a series of hyperrealistic handbags from renowned designers, from Louis Vuitton’s paint can and Moschino’s orange juice box to an array of celebrity-beloved, food-inspired bags like cannoli clutches or pizza purses.
But not everyone has the same taste.
“This kind of thing stopped being relevant after Andy Warhol did the Campbell’s soup tins. Then it made sense. Then it had a rebellious spirit. Then it was making a point,” author and Fashion Revolution co-founder Orsola de Castro told The Guardian, critiquing the Balenciaga cup clutch.
“If the coffee cup had existed then, the depiction of a coffee cup bag would have been some kind of a statement on plastic or on the unnecessariness of it all. But now it is simply just vulgar.”
