Brace for the Post-Margaux Strike of Bowling Bags
Though with a force more akin to that of a spare than a strike, the bowling bag has steadily barreled to the forefront of sought-after accessories.
From the rubble The Row's explosive success has left behind, brands have been piecing together their responses to Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen's spacious, stealth-wealth Margaux It-purses.
The Margaux's domed top, structured body, and double handles remind of something one would have carried into a 1960s bowling alley, and have seemingly splintered, as traits, onto the moodboards of many a designer.
And Balenciaga's newly unveiled Carrie model reads as the latest case-in-point for symptoms of what I'll call post-Margaux syndrome.
The luxurious, minimally branded calfskin Carrie bag is described as a bowling bag by Balenciaga. However, the luxury house's website doesn't offer information on the bowling equipment it can carry, instead mentioning it has space for "a smartphone and a tablet."
Balenciaga's new bag joins a growing cluster of other designs with a discernable bowling-inspired streak. Coach's best-selling carryall can be considered a rather obvious take on the trend, while Prada and Miu Miu are betting on slightly subtler, at times slouchier nods to the bowling bag.
Though cuboid just the same, these parties favor simpler, sportier properties over some of the previously mentioned's emphasis on an almost regal sense of sturdiness.
Meanwhile, in its most recent runway show, Acne Studios premiered a startling variety of differently sized, printed, and trinket-adorned bowling bag deviations, ranging from those that'd fit a pair of shoes to wear on-lane, to those that could probably contain a whole player if they were bendy enough.
Whether shrunken down to handheld proportions or inflated to weekender scale, the bowling bag's metamorphosis is happening in plain sight, and has been.
The Row can't solely be credited for high fashion's co-optation of the bowling bag when there are items like Louis Vuitton's far older Speedy bag around. (Nor do any of the examples named here, however young or large, aspire to ever actually hold a ball.)
But the Margaux's exclusivity and popularity amongst celebrities has surely (re-)opened the floodgates for such a boxy style of bag's surge in demand.
The Olsens' instincts are once again due praise for the season's hot accessory and its slow roll to the center of shopping discourse. 'Cause no one's lugging balls to league night, but everyone wants to score a bowling bag.
