Fashion: Moneybags - The status handbag is fashion's newest fetish

Here she comes, the fashionable one, carrying on her arm an emblem of her fabulous wealth and taste: the status handbag.<br><br>With the subtlety of a neon sign, it announces that she is here, she is now

Wednesday, March 15th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Here she comes, the fashionable one, carrying on her arm an emblem of her fabulous wealth and taste: the status handbag.

With the subtlety of a neon sign, it announces that she is here, she is now and she probably laid out something in the four- to five-figure range for that chic little tote.

Was it only 1996 that the bag of choice was the black nylon backpack by Prada?

A year later, Fendi introduced the glitzy baguette, quickly winning over the shoulders of fashion queens such as Kate Moss and Sarah Jessica Parker, a Fendi fan both on screen (in her HBO series Sex and the City) and off.

Companies with a history in handbags and luggage - Louis Vuitton, Gucci - followed suit by reinventing or updating their designs, which were quickly adopted by high-profile types such as actress Rene Russo.

These are handbags that have gone over the top, sprouting flowers, embroidery, beads, sequins, crystals, color, patchwork, tufts of fur and logos - lots and lots of logos.

! ! The classic Hermes "Kelly" bag (named for actress-turned-princess Grace) now has a host of high-dollar friends. There are "Jackie" bags from Gucci, brightly colored duffel bags from Louis Vuitton, snakeskin clutches from Versace, new-wave quilted bags from Chanel, "bowling" bags from Prada and the queen of them all, the Fendi baguette, a rectangular patchwork of color, pattern and texture made all the more collectible by its issue in limited editions.

What was formerly an object of utility - i.e., something to carry your stuff around in - has become loaded with subtext and secret codes, not to mention extraordinary handwork, injecting a note of drama into what is already a fetish object for many women.

"When you watch the runways, the handbags and accessories have become so significant, it's sort of like you don't know where to look," says Marcy Bruch, executive editor of Accessories, a fashion trade magazine.

"Accessories are just a whole lot prettier these last two! ! years," says Audrey Mohan, who has worked in the handbag department at Neiman Marcus NorthPark for 22 years. "When I first started selling Prada, I didn't know what it was. Now when I see my customers carry bags from 20 years ago, I look inside and I can't believe I sold Prada. No one ever paid attention.

"Gucci was not as hot until Tom Ford took over. J.P. Tod, it's only the third year doing handbags. Ferragamo, which used to do shoe coordinates that were only worn by old people, has even gotten really hip, so the bags look good."

Kate Spade, though, is still the No. 1 seller: "We sell anywhere from 30 to 40 pieces a day," Ms. Mohan says.

Handbags are an accessible way to wear a status label, because they cost much less than a designer dress. Even if a bag costs hundreds of dollars, you can sort of justify the expenditure with the fact that you'll use the bag again and again. Still, the prices can be astounding. Prada's ostrich bowling bag is $2,800, while the Herme! ! s crocodile "Kelly" scores on the high end at more than $12,000. Kate Spade bags start at $150.

Design houses such as Gucci, Prada, Fendi and Chanel earn up to half of their profits from accessories. Gucci derives 56 percent of its sales from leather goods and shoes, and Prada 77 percent, according to the industry publication Women's Wear Daily.

"The handbag movement is happening because women aren't looking at taking a basic black leather bag and wearing it day in and day out," says Ms. Bruch. "They're getting novelty-type bags. It's almost a no-brainer. You make your creative statement with your bag, your scarf. I don't wear any jewelry anymore, I only wear my diamond studs. Now it's the bag."

Shoe fanatic Leisa Street cared little for Fendi until she got her baguette.

"My heart melted when I saw that Fendi baguette," she says. "I tell you what, I took that to every Christmas party, and every girl that ever lived would pick up that purse and go, 'What is this pur! ! se? I want it.' "

She says it's a work of art.

"That's why people really went nuts on it," she says. "And I mean 90-year-olds to young children, all saying, 'I love your bag!' It transcended every age. Everyone loves it like a piece of art. I've never seen a handbag have such an effect on people. I would set it down on a counter and people would be drawn to it."

She is discreet about the cost - "you can buy an old used car for that price," she says.

"I thought I would never spend that on a bag, but it was Christmas, and I said [to my husband], 'Gene, I have to have it. I know it's a problem. I know this is a problem and it does not make sense, but, oh, my God, I want that purse.' "

Ms. Street used to reserve this kind of, um, enthusiasm for shoes. But handbags have become her new shoe.

"I'm still into shoes - I used to think, 'Why be into shoes and handbags?' I wouldn't change my bag that much. I think it started with Gucci. I got one in orange, in turquoise,! ! red and electric green."

She's always carried a handbag - "the difference is, shoes used to turn me on more and now I get more excited about handbags," she says. "Handbags are cool now."

Even non-handbag-fanatics such as Sheila Brenner, a public relations consultant, are succumbing to the power of a purse.

Ms. Brenner developed an unnatural fixation on a Kate Spade bag. This was something she'd never experienced before.

"Every summer I used a straw bag that I bought in Nantucket," she says. "I used that so much that people were laughing at me. I decided I needed to do something a little bolder."

She came across a pair of Kate Spade shoes - thongs made with a grosgrain ribbon with little squares of color - and she was hooked.
"It had a matching bag, but the bag was sold out," she says. "I called Kate Spade in New York, I called the Boston store, and finally tracked down a small bag."

She likes the accent it provides to her minimalist tastes.

"All I have! ! to do is wear a black anything with them and it makes a statement," she says.
And she isn't limiting her handbag wardrobe the way she used to. "I have bought two handbags this year, and I hadn't bought four handbags in 10 years before that," she says.
Ms. Street has a serious relationship with her purses.

"I took the beaded one to tennis, and they were, 'What are you doing?' " she says. "I'll carry it until a new purse wins me over. My last one, an electric green Gucci, only got two weeks of wear. I don't change purses. It's my love until another love comes along."

And she rarely goes back to a purse.

"I just pass it to someone else," she says. "I think I'll use them because they're expensive and nice. But I'm always going to have a new love I love better."