How handbags became affordable

I can still remember when $1,000 seemed an unimaginably vast amount to pay for a handbag. Then the recession happened and instead of the entire luxury market collapsing into a tired and emotional souffl?? of butter soft, crystal-smothered leather, something strange happened.

Bag prices, like Nanook, began heading inexorably north - and thenceforth to Pluto. Annual inflation of around 30 per cent on identical models was not uncommon. $1,200 ...$1,500 ... $3,000 ... $100,000 ... For this, granted, you got a few jewels and a suede lining that could be customised to match the interior of your jet. But still.

It was at this point that retailers began talking up the $1,000 bag as some kind of mythical "value" product - the luxury world's equivalent of a 24p tin of baked beans in Aldi. The world had gone mad, which was inconvenient if you happened to be a normal woman who wanted a quality product approximately halfway between the chain stores' stylish but not always durable offerings and the designers' flights of fancy.

It's this woman who is now, belatedly, being energetically courted by established and new designers. When even a cosseted member of the dollygarchy comments on the stratospheric prices of some brands (Elena Perminova, partner of the Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, has revealed that she doesn't own a Birkin because it's too expensive) you know the winds have changed direction as dramatically as any elemental effects in Poldark.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley with a 119 Saffiano Kurt Geiger bowling bag; Beamish bag, 250, Village England; Raffia bag, 280, M Missoni; Ledbury bag, 195, Caroline Gardner; Mansur Gavriel bucket bag, 335, Net-A-Porter.

Michael Kors was the first major name to spot the vast, under-serviced market clamouring for a bag that didn't cost the same as a second-hand car. The 260-300 MK tote has since sold tens of millions and made Kors, whose business nearly folded in the early Nineties, a billionaire. The simple, clean lines of the typical MK bag (inspired, as so many bags have been, by C??line's), its irresistible array of punchy colours and the price - one reassuring zero above say, River Island, but still within the realms of feasibility - comprise an obvious formula. But when those zingy totes first began popping up, hardly anyone else was applying it.

In the five years since, Radley, the Britain-based (mid) market leader has updated its designs, ditching its twee image for a more fashionable, sleek approach. LK Bennett beefed up its bag line, collaborating with the actress Rosamund Pike on a high-quality range of bowling bags that proved it was possible to deliver a degree of luxury for under 500. (Pike, who insisted on being a hands-on partner, was particularly picky about the zips, and it showed). Meanwhile, Russell & Bromley, when it can be prized from its blingy hardware, has consistently delivered high quality bags for around 300.

Then there's the retail phenomenon that is Mansur Gavriel. Around the time that Pike was quality-controlling her zips, graduate Rachel Mansur, now 31, and 32-year-old Floriana Gavriel who was studying the arts in Berlin, met at a The XX concert in Los Angeles. It was friendship at first sight - they shared a lot aesthetically, including a hankering for cool, affordable bags.

At the start of 2013, they launched Mansur Gavriel, which has since attracted genuine waiting lists for its supple, minimalist drawstring bucket bags. Using vegetable tanned leather, a material mostly deployed in men's accessories, the duo spent two years developing a bag that would feel functional yet feminine, classic yet edgy and that, crucially, would sell for a price they and their peers would be prepared to pay.

Donna Air with a Laura Bailey for LK Bennett clutch; Bucket bag, 335, Marc by Marc Jacobs; Carven satchel, 290, Very Exclusive; Faux fur clutch, 335, Shrimps; Muzungu Sisters straw basket bag, 230, Matchesfashion.com

And that's the nub. For all the slicing and dicing at the lower end of the market, pricing at the top is as much an art as it is a science. For a niche brand, predicated on exclusivity and elitism, prices are required to be stratospheric, as one CEO confessed, "because if they're not, your target clients don't feel they can trust the quality". Additionally, for the bigger brands, there are multi-million-pound contracts with actresses and expensive ad campaigns to be recouped.

That's not to say that all expensive bags are a con. High-quality skins from reputable sources aren't cheap. Nor is made-in-Italy (still the ne plus ultra of bag production) craftsmanship. When it comes to exotics, a small bag can use up an entire alligator or crocodile: only the softest parts are used, markings must be aligned, consequently there is a lot of wastage. Talk to those who have embarked on the production of medium-priced bags, and it becomes evident that when you charge 300, sacrifices have to be made.

"You have to keep the detailing simple," says Caroline Gardner, who launched a chic collection of eponymously named bags at the end of 2014.

"You can't add lots of trim, hardware, zips, pockets, or too many different linings, as it just puts the cost up. I like to use the best quality so it's crucial to think about what's most important and ensure everything is useful."

Gardner, an enthusiastic consumer of Marni bags in her time, only became convinced she could produce a bag that would appeal to her and her equally picky friends after she discovered a small atelier in Turkey and saw its leathers. "Quality control is vital. It's something we keep a sharp eye on, visiting the producers regularly."

At the top end, brands have a different strategy for tapping into this market. Rather than compromise on hardware and marketing, they're offering lilliputian versions of their best sellers. Mulberry, after a brief detour into Herm??s territory, has moderated prices. Although many of its lines hover around 1,000, it offers a diminutive model of its Lily bag for 350. It won't hold a monumental amount, but it is a status marker, and that's important. 350 is not, lest we forget again, an insignificant sum.

Prestige remains a huge driver of luxury bag consumption. Fendi's micro Peekaboo barely holds a mobile phone, yet it's flying off the shelves, despite costing 930, compared with 2,200 plus for the regular.

If it's an everyday, reasonably priced, durable bag you're after, then the new generation of specialists are your answer. Julia Dobson, a one-time UK country manager at C??line recently launched Village England with Eddie Knevett, the former head of accessories at department store House of Fraser, to redress the balance in a market that, says Dobson, has been dominated by American sub-brands.

It's not easy, she explains, "because there are still many consumers who don't understand leathers. I'm not sure that many people outside the industry could choose between the leather YSL and Cambridge Satchel Company uses once you remove the badges and bag styles." Dobson believes some of the mass producers exploit customers' naivety. "I found a lot of what was being manufactured disrespectful to the consumer."