The fascination over Burberry Blue Label bags

January 8, 2008 at 1:37 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

What is it about Burberry Blue Label that has attracted many followers all over Asia? First, let me just give you a brief history of how BBL came about for those newbies. BBL came about when Burberry (the overall head of the corporation) sold the license to its trademark to Sanyo, a Japanese company in 1996 (Does it come as a surprise that BBL has already been in existence for more than 10 years?).

With the license, Sanyo’s designers reinterpreted Burberry’s image to suit their target audience of young women, and their most popular bag – the dumpling bag – won the hearts of many (unfortunately, the counterfeiters fell in love the the dumpling bag too!)

The seasonal colours that BBL bags came in drove the heat up as well among their customers – checkered patterns that were used for a 2003 pink bag would be different from that of a 2004 pink bag. Not only would the colours of the bags be different, BBL would also make changes to the handles and the bases of the bags. However, the dumpling bags are no longer sold by BBL because of rampant counterfeits. It is really a shame for BBL fans.. especially for those who just got to know about BBL or for those who love BBL in the past but couldn’t afford one in the past. This probably is also the reason for the discontinuation of the reversible bags (they haven’t released it for two seasons already). I do understand BBL’s strategy for discontinuing the dumpling bag. However, it may work against them as fans would consider purchasing good quality counterfeits (I was tempted in getting one when I saw this woman carrying a BBL dumpling bag on the train. Sigh… wish I bought a piece when I went to Japan a few years ago. Wishing against hope that they will come up with a limited edition!)

Factoring in BBL’s deft marketing efforts, its famous checkered fabric and logo of Burberry on fashionable clothes and accessories, its use of seasonal colours, its non-discounted merchandises even during sales, its pretty salesgirls in attractive BBL’s clothes and of course, its charm as an exclusive brand sold only in Japan ( it really drives up the attraction of the BBL merchandise!), it is not that hard to see why Burbery Blue Label is so popular!

In commemoration of the dumpling bags, I’ve uploaded photos of past collections taken from websites, mostly Japan auction sites where sellers are trying to off-load their used bags. For those who are able to get a source to purchase for you, there may be good bargains but be careful of counterfeits!