Ms Nnaji was spotted at a friends wedding on Saturday rocking Chanel's Plexiglas Lego clutch bag. The bag, which is available in yellow, green and red, is $10, 000. Yep you heard right. And when you convert that to Naira - that's a cool N1.58million. You have to be loaded to be able to afford one...Lego, a milk carton and a petrol tank: Chanel's cult runway bags Chanel's quilted 2.55 bag is one of the most coveted handbags of all time. First created in the 1920s by Coco Chanel, the bag's design was innovative, as it allowed the user to hang the strap over their arm, freeing up their hands. The bag was launched into the market 9 years later. Chanel was renowned for taking inspiration from the simple yet efficient designs of military ware, the legendary boucle jacket lapels were in part inspired by military tailoring. The 2.55 bag strap was influenced by the straps on soldiers' bags. Since then the bag has been updated many times. Far from the classic style of the 2.55 bag, Chanel fans await for the special pieces which head designer and creative director Karl Lagerfeld pulls out of the bag for runway shows.
The Lego bag, which was first designed in 2013, was a firm favourite with Chanel's famous clientele. Seen on the arms of Kim Kardashian, Anna Della Russo, Rihanna and Lily Allen, the bag was numerously labelled the best bag of the summer season. The bag is made of Plexiglas and features an interlocking C logo in raised plastic. Christie's Online has an incredible selection of Chanel pieces. Fall/Winter 2014 was the year Chanel and Moschino drew inspiration from groceries and fast food. Whilst Jeremy Scott of Moschino made a collection inspired by McDonald's Happy Meal box, Lagerfeld created the Lait de Coco Minaudiere Bag, a bag in the shape of a milk carton. Taking the handbag to a post-modern realm, Lagerfeld debuted the shopping basket bag-within-a-bag at Paris Fashion Week in March for Chanel's autumn/winter 2014 accessories collection. The piece was made from brass and calfskin. For spring/summer 2013 the hula hoop bag was released. The full size version of the bag which was seen on the catwalk, was not released for retail, instead the smaller version was.
Lagerfeld designed the hooped bag for beach use with ''space for the beach towel and then you can put it into the sand and hang things on it." The Dubai By Night Gas Tank minaudière bag was presented to the world at Chanel's Cruise collection in Dubai in 2014. The Plexiglas bag was made for one season only and was sold out immediately after it hit the shops. The bag is in the shape of a "jerry can" gas tank with the Chanel CC logo on both the front and back. Graffiti designs have became a design favourite of the likes of Jeremy Scott and Lagerfeld. Evoking graffiti of 1980s New York and the grunge era of the 1990s, the canvas bag with ropes and chains has the signature CC logo spray painted across it. It was launched for Spring 2014. Barnebys launches the world’s largest free search engine for auction results Patrick Procktor: The Last Romantic Spencer Tunick wants Hull to get naked for his latest project Juliette-Andrea Elie: the sublime native aesthetic
French fancies Magritte and Gauguin lead the way at Christie's Sleeper Chinese vase estimated at £1 200 smashes records selling for £810 000 Win £500 to buy antiques and art! Elvis' aircrafts at Julien's Patek Philippe Celebrates 175th Anniversary with Dawn on the Lake What lies beneath: A Brief History of Underwear at V & A Inspiration: Going for Gold From Jaguars to Bentleys: Best of BritishFREE Standard Delivery On orders over €30 FREE Next Day Click & Collect Find out more Next Day Delivery Find out more Shop Chanel Fragrance & Beauty online at Debenhams! With Beauty Club Earn Points plus Free Delivery. Next Day Delivery Now Available"It's a Chanel day bag - a timeless classic. If you had 50 in the shop, you'd sell all 50," says Nathan Finch, managing director of Pickwick pawnbrokers.We are in the strongroom of his shop in north London, where he is showing off some of the hundreds of bags that customers pledge each year, in return for borrowing money.
Once it was mostly watches, gold or jewellery that people took to pawnbrokers. Now, designer handbags are the big growth area.They are increasingly high in value - often worth thousands of pounds each, they are easily portable, and there is a seemingly limitless supply."For some women, it's a bit of an addiction. They get their fix from buying a bag. But like most cravings, it comes again," says Mr Finch. "One customer brought 18 bags into our Dartford store."With celebrity endorsements from the likes of Cara Delevingne and Kim Kardashian, bags offer plenty of glamour.But on a more practical level, you can use them to borrow cold, hard cash. Yet some of those who pledge their bags are already extremely well off.Debbie Wynter, who runs the pawnbrokers Suttons and Robertsons in central London, calls them "the ladies who lunch"."One customer wanted to raise a loan so they could go on holiday on a private jet, in style," she says. They may live in flashy houses in South Kensington, but sometimes they don't have access to ready cash.
However, often they are ordinary working women.Kim Baker, an office administrator from Kent, has three or four designer bags, which she regularly pawns at her local shop. Her favourites are a Mulberry Bayswater, a Louis Vuitton Postman, and a Chanel clutch bag."I flip between the Mulberry and the Louis Vuitton because I don't like to part with the Chanel. They probably go in every couple of months, but they're never in there for long."On occasion, she's been tempted to pledge one bag so that she can afford to buy a different one."Yes, I would pawn one to buy another one. It'll just come home until I put it in again."She typically borrows a couple of hundred pounds at a time, to pay for holidays or school uniforms. And she prefers to take a loan from a pawnbroker rather than a payday lender or friends."Because it's my item, it feels like I am borrowing from myself, if that makes sense."The bags that hold their value best - and therefore are the easiest to pawn - are the classic designs by Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Chanel.Two of the most valuable are the Birkin - named after actress Jane Birkin - or the Kelly, as carried by Grace Kelly in one of her classic films.
These are normally worth up to £6,000 each, but one exotic Birkin in pink crocodile skin is currently for sale on a French website for £167,000.Admittedly it uses pink sapphires to fasten it, and white gold for the lock."There are certainly pieces that make sense at that level," says Matthew Rubinger, the head of handbags for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, at Christies in Hong Kong."What's really interesting is that we are just starting to see these trends, as people move up from being casual buyers to collectors." Last year Christies sold a pink Birkin with diamonds in it for £168,000, and three months ago they sold another (pictured above) for £227,000 - a world record price.However, Mr Rubinger advises people not to invest in exotic designer bags unless they really know what they're doing."I wouldn't recommend anyone to empty their savings account." More information is available from the National Pawnbrokers AssociationThe trend to pawning designer bags is not confined to the big cities.
Larry Kohen, who runs three pawnbrokers in Cornwall, says it is becoming a regular habit amongst some of his clients."One week we had a Goyard in. We also had a couple of Hermes bags in as well. They're stupid money," he tells the BBC."Sometimes there's a sad reason. We had a lady, a second home owner, who couldn't afford the mortgage. She brought bags and jewellery into us."Sometimes women will pawn bags they have been given, which they don't like. The fact they are fashion items also boosts turnover."Sometimes we buy a design, but it gets to two years old and we don't want to wear it any more," says Myint Myint Thein, an avid bag collector who also manages the Pickwick store in north London."At some restaurants or clubs, when we go, we need to wear Chanel, Dior or Gucci.I've got 15 to 20 bags, but I don't think it's beyond what I need - every occasion is different."Pawnbrokers offer "secured" loans, which are less risky, and therefore cheaper, than unsecured lending. Nevertheless, the industry advises against using such loans as a long-term form of borrowing.