Shoppers outraged by ridiculous luxury bag with egregious price tag: 'I thought this was a joke'

Designer brand Balenciaga is known for its avant-garde designs, but for many, one of its products took things a little too far.

A Redditor recently posted an image of a bag printed with an assortment of berries that, from all appearances, looks like a regular plastic-woven grocery store tote like any other. However, it was the price tag that upset the original poster.

"$2726 for this Bag, BALENCIAGA you need to fire your creative team Asap. Has Balenciaga absolutely lost it?" they wrote, calling it the "ugliest bag."

Commenters quickly chimed in with their thoughts. "I thought this was a joke at first," one person said, to which another replied, "The problem is the joke ain't landing."

"My grocery store totes are genuinely cuter than this," another wrote. 

"I swear Balenciaga is a social experiment. My mind cannot accept any other explanation," one person suggested. 

There's a good reason for this comment. The brand is known for its tongue-in-cheek designs that charge extravagant prices for seemingly ordinary — or arguably very ugly — items. 

For example, a pair of jeans that had been ripped and stained all over cost thousands of dollars, and a bracelet designed to look exactly like a roll of clear plastic tape was selling for thousands more.

Investigating the bag's materials angered people even further because while it looks like synthetic fibers, it's actually made from calfskin. "Wow, baby cows actually had to die for this crap," someone pointed out angrily.

Products like this also contribute to a culture of short-lived fashion trends, which encourages clothing makers to continue churning out new, cheaply made styles that get worn just a handful of times before they're trashed. Not only is this energy-intensive, but once they're sitting in a landfill, the items leach planet-warming gases and pollutants into the air and the environment.

Fortunately, if it's a designer look you're aiming for, it's easy to obtain designer items for pennies on the dollar at thrift stores and secondhand marketplaces — and keep them out of the landfill at the same time.

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