Ashley Olsen seen on the streets of Manhattan on July 25, 2011 with a water bottle, carrying $39,000 slung over her arms.
There’s no economic recession here.
Just earlier this year, actresses-turned-fashionistas Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson launched their newest handbag line that includes a backpack with a price tag to die for. (Well, maybe at least one alligator did.) The famed $39,000 item for their line, The Row, isn’t just ludicrous; it’s flying off the shelves and actually selling out.
Barneys New York, who stocks the bag, is of course thrilled. The department store’s fashion director, Amanda Brooks, gloated, “’I think if you were ever going to spend $39,000 on a bag, that’s the bag you should buy because I think you’d wear it for a really long time.” Right.
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Ashley Olson also had a few choice words to say about the bag’s popularity. “During our last economic crisis in the U.S., the only thing that went up was Hermès,” she reflected, while sipping champagne with shoe magician Christian Louboutin as an American job was shedded with every clink.
But you know there’s an upside to it all: maybe the twins can fuel the expansion of their company with new jobs, thus replacing one worker for every one bag that is sold. That’s unless, of course, there was only one bag to start with – the one that Ashley is carrying.
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Erica Ho is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @ericamho and Google+. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.