Charming Paris street style SS2535 Images
The anthropological prophet Jemima Kirke once said, “I think you guys might be thinking about yourselves too much.” Personal style – more than the clothing itself – has been one of 2024’s hottest trends. No matter which way you turn, or whatever platform you use, “authentic” personal style has been neatly packaged and resold to us like it’s the newest, hottest form of self-help. Somewhere along the line, as luxury labels began creating smaller and smaller items at higher and higher price points, bag charms got caught in the crosshairs, inadvertently becoming the perfect battleground for the authenticity debate.
Like most trends, bag charms had an innocent enough beginning. Late last year, the overall attitude towards dressing seemed to reach a frustrating standstill. Many fashion fans had thrown their arms up in the air in frustration and purged their wardrobes looking to reevaluate their ‘forever style’, after being worn down by rapid microtrends and -cores. TikTok fashion trends started to focus on styling tips and wardrobe hacks rather than specific aesthetics, including videos like ‘one base, 5 outfits’ and ‘wearing vs. styling’, while uber-niche Instagram accounts like Landyard Culture began popping up documenting silly, non-trend-driven styling caught casually on strangers on the street.
At the same time all that was happening, ‘how-tos’ for buying Hermés Birkins started gaining traction on TikTok, and brands like Balenciaga, The Row, Miu Miu and Prada began competing on the runway for the next status-symbol carry-all. Balenciaga’s Rodeo’s Bag, which resembles a slouchier Birkin, debuted down the SS24 runway overladen with carabiners, lanyards and charms (which are not included with Rodeo purchase, mind you). Meanwhile, Miu Miu’s Beau bags – overflowing with trinkets and charms – began to point the style zeitgeist towards pop culture’s undisputed advocate for ‘wearing in’ your luxury items: Jane Birkin. From the Birkin’s conception in a chance encounter on an aeroplane, to her own rough-and-tumble use of the bag, Jane Birkin’s legacy has become synonymous with stylish spontaneity and the satisfaction that comes from collecting experiences over time. Both are characteristics brands and fans feel they can tap into by mimicking Birkin’s signature beat-up, eclectic style, breaking away from the quiet luxury that’s ruled our feeds. Suddenly, as personal style discourse was reinvigorated with the idea of emulating Hermès’s original icon, bag charms quickly became the controversial fashion symbol of 2024.
The crux of bag charms lies with this: accessorising, with keychains for example, tends to provide ‘proof’ of style through diverse interests organically acquired over the course of a lifetime. A novelty pin picked up from a diner while on family vacation, fraying lanyards from summer camp, all to compliment a worthily beat-up, day-to-day hobo bag. However, as TikTok creators rapidly become ‘faux’ collectors of these trinkets, piling on multitudes of recently purchased (and sometimes ridiculously expensive) keychains, people have criticised the shortcuts taken to find ‘forever style’ in just three to five business days. Fashion commentator and creator Mandy Lee explains that as absurd as discourse might become, bag charms have provided the perfect safety net for people who are desperately trying to interpret and style trends as their own in the public sphere. In comparison to a “low stake item” like a Christmas tree or refrigerator, which collects ornaments and magnets throughout your life, Lee explains, “bag charms hold this status, right? You’re saying ‘I know how to curate or I know how to signal to everyone around me that I am with the times. I know what’s cute and trendy. I’m decorating my bag, I’m an individual.’”
Yet partaking in a trend like bag charms isn’t always enough these days – you have to explain and prove your bag’s worn-in journey to your audience on an analytical level. Fashion theorist Rian Phin describes the bag charm discourse as a by-product of the internet’s ‘authenticity wars’, which happen because people want to quell their imposter anxiety and prove their credibility in digital fashion spaces. She jokes about audiences’ cynical hyperawareness, saying, “It makes me think of that meme format circulating saying ‘You don’t see me at the club? Ok well I don’t see you on page 76 of Ann Demeulemeester eBay searches.’” The argument seems to be, if you don’t have the patience to reach page 76 of an eBay search – or wait an entire lifetime to find the perfect keychain – you must not value authentic experience enough to be a timeless tastemaker in the first place.
In a similar way, the Olsen twins’ mid-00s boho-grunge style is another example of an ‘authentic’ experience that fashion creators are trying to recreate. From Mary-Kate’s famously destroyed Hermès Kelly Bag to her wine-stained, mint green Balenciaga City Bag, the fact that she kept wearing an accidentally and very obviously stained bag is ironically the point of the whole debate. And eventually, everything, including the Olsen twins, gets turned into a meme. Influencer Victoria Paris recently sparked controversy with her rage-baiting attempt to “Jane Birkin-ify” her Gucci Jackie bag by repeatedly slamming it onto her outdoor patio. Fashion creator Lauren SoYung also gave her Rodeo and City Bags the hyperbolic Birkin/Olsen treatment, cracking eggs and torching the leather while viewers predictably policed the comment section with suggestions like “using it for a while also has the same effect. Hope this helps!”
There is also something performative about saying ‘I’m going to collect these bag charms over the course of my life like Jane Birkin.’ Because literally who is Jane Birkin to you – Tamika Turner
Despite these endlessly aggressive authenticity wars, brands would never hold back from profiting off of a manufactured trend, which has sparked further debate among people purchasing bag charms as entry-level designer items. Miu Miu currently offers leather-woven lanyards and keychain miniatures of their cardigans for comparable prices to the first Prada bag I bought with my summer job money nine years ago. Balenciaga currently sells key-filled carabiners for well over a thousand dollars, ones that could easily be replaced by something as simple as a hardware store carabiner filled with something as absurd as your actual house keys.
Chiming in on the debate, TikTok creator Tamika Turner, known as Prettycritical, responded to a video made by the popular podcast Celebrity Memoir Book Club, who was complaining about the ridiculousness of policing authenticity via bag charms. Continuing CMBC’s point, Turner says, “there is also something performative about saying ‘I’m going to collect these bag charms over the course of my life like Jane Birkin.’ Because literally who is Jane Birkin to you… you have the same relation to Jane Birkin and the Birkin bag as everyone else.”
In a way, the only way to ‘win’ the bag charm argument is to be blithely unaware that it’s even happening, something I’ve automatically disqualified myself by writing discourse about the discourse. Though I will ask: if I bought my dirty, white Balenciaga City bag from The RealReal for an appropriately dirt cheap price, is that considered “cheating”? What about the people in my Instagram DMs telling me not to restore it for ‘aesthetically authentic’ reasons? Aren’t those requests just as inauthentic? Essentially, as fashion commentary reaches its final form and authenticity ironically peaks in popularity, you’re damned if you do (buy that absurdly expensive designer keychain), and you’re damned if you don’t (painstakingly police others who participate in a topical fashion trend).
