Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen offer $17K fur handbag, PETA throws a hissy
Last year, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were widely criticized for offering a $39,000 alligator handbag/backpack through their high-fashion line, The Row. Allegedly, the 39K bag was “selling out” at Barney’s, and all of the divas had to have one. PETA complained, and everyone was like, “Ugh, conspicuous consumption sucks” but… I don’t know. I didn’t see what the huge fuss was about. No one was being forced to buy the bag. Of course it was ridiculously overpriced and of course no one needs a $39K bag. The Olsens took the criticism in stride, if “stride” means “completely ignoring their critics and going on to win ‘Womenswear Designers of the Year’ at the CFDAs.” And now the Olsens have one-upped their 2011 offering with a new $17,000 bag. Here it is:
OMFG. How hideous is that? I’m a purse person (as opposed to a shoe person), and you couldn’t pay me to carry that roadkill-looking thing. That was another reason I was meh on the $39K bag – I actually thought the bag was cute. Not “$39,000 cute” but cute. This one is just awful, though. Anyway, the Olsens are facing even more criticism. Because it worked so well the last time:
What Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (and Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Reese Witherspoon to name a few) call fashion, PETA calls blasphemous.
The twin fashion designers received some flack from the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals after creating an almost $17,000—yeah, you read that right—backpack for their luxury fashion line The Row made of patches of animal fur.
And the animal-rights organization didn’t exactly sugarcoat their feelings on the situation.
“If it looks like a troll and acts like a troll, it’s probably a Trollsen Twin—or someone wearing one of their new $16,000 totes, which are made from the fur and skins of innocent animals,” PETA said in a statement to E! News.
“What the Olsens lack in creativity, they try to make up for in shock value. Sadly, it’s the foxes, calves, and alligators—who often have the fur ripped off them while they are still conscious and able to feel pain—who pay the dearest price.”
Meanwhile, the creation by 2012’s Womenswear Designers of the Year caught the eye of well-known stylist and reality star Rachel Zoe, who called the accessory next season’s staple item on her Zoe Report.
Maybe the Olsens answer to last year’s criticism was to make a bag that was less expensive? No, they knew what they were doing by making a fur bag. They wanted the criticism. They wanted the scandal and controversy. All for an indefensibly ugly bag.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
