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The once extremely popular kiss lock handbag is making a comeback

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Now a piece from the archives - The fashion archives, that is, NPR's Mansee Khurana brings us this story about a vintage purse style that's making a comeback.

MANSEE KHURANA, BYLINE: You may have never heard of the phrase kiss lock bag, but you've probably seen it.

LEXI LAUER: So a kiss lock bag is usually a frame style handbag.

KHURANA: That's Lexi Lauer, the media manager at Secondi Consignment, a thrift store in the D.C. area.

LAUER: And it comes together with usually two balls - it could be two rhinestones - whatever it is. And when you pinch them together, they twist around each other and they lock that way.

KHURANA: The clasp bag, like what your grandmother might have carried in the 1920s, has been making a comeback at brands like Coach and Marc Jacobs, thanks to interest in vintage-style handbags on social media. At New York Fashion Week last month, Coach debuted a new line of kiss lock bags in all different shapes and sizes, even one shaped like a teddy bear. But you don't need to buy a brand-new purse to jump on this trend.

LAUER: With vintage pieces, you get the real deal, the real leather, the hand stitching. It's worth the investment.

KHURANA: Lauer pulls down a fuchsia clasp bag off the shelf.

LAUER: This gorgeous silver palladium hardware. It's a good feel. The feet clicks when you put it down. It also comes with the detachable cross-body strap. So that is vintage timeless style made for the modern person.

KHURANA: But why are these old styles making a comeback? Well, for one, designers and brands like to reinterpret fashions from the past, like this black Gucci bag re-released in 2020 called the Jackie. Lauer pulls it off the shelf for me.

LAUER: It just - it's timeless. It's been around for 40 years, and it's still in demand.

KHURANA: She says it's inspired by a bag Jackie Kennedy Onassis used to carry in the 1970s.

LAUER: We like our trends. We like what's of the moment. But these are the pieces - like this handbag - that we're always going to love.

KHURANA: And leaning on that nostalgia has proven a successful formula for the fashion industry to the tune of billions of dollars over and over and over again.

Mansee Khurana, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF FREDDIE JOACHIM'S "SUN DRESS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Mansee Khurana
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