The New High-end Consumer

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“Please Put My Bottega Veneta Wallet in a Plain Bag”

For high-end shoppers on Madison and Fifth Avenues in New York, the hottest must-have accessory for 2009 is not the crocodile cuff bracelet, the snakeskin clutch or the python leather purse — it’s the plain paper bag.

That was the consensus of a recent Penn Fashion Week panel discussion titled, “Can Luxury Survive the Economy,” hosted by Wharton. “It used to be that you’d buy a pencil just to get the bag” with an up-market label, said panelist Antonia Thompson of Robert Burke Associates, a strategic consultant for luxury vendors such as wedding dress designer Vera Wang, jeweler Fred Leighton and retailer Bergdorf Goodman. But extravagance isn’t what it used to be.