Once a Ubiquity, the IKEA Blue Bag Is Now Luxury
IKEA’s signature FRAKTA bag — you know, that big, blue woven one you get when shopping at the Swedish furniture giant’s store — is now a luxury bag. Well, at least it’s being treated like one.
On Oxford Street, the central London shopping mecca home to historic fashion stores like Selfridges, IKEA has opened a luxury pop-up store dedicated to the FRAKTA bag.
Inside, an on-site atelier is ready to personalize FRAKTA bags with bespoke lettering for the small price of £3 (roughly $3.80), a service free of charge to IKEA Family members.
The bags are offered at their usual affordable prices: either 50p or 75p, depending on size.
This service, normally offered by luxury brands like Louis Vuitton or Goyard, is available until March 2025 at 216 Oxford Street — next door to what will be a new IKEA store when it opens in spring 2025.
And the pop-up store is more than just a customization center. It’s a full-blown homage to IKEA’s ubiquitous blue bags, complete with ASMR soundscapes and a candyfloss wall offering a bite of IKEA-blue colored treats.
This isn’t the FRAKTA’s first taste of being a luxury bag — it has been reimagined by iconic designers including Zandra Rhodes and Marimekko in the past, plus Balenciaga blatantly ripped it off a few years back — but with its own shop on Oxford Street, the FRAKTA is now getting the full luxury treatment.
