2 weeks Ago By Alice Newbold
“I am one of those people who likes to fill their bag,” Zendaya told Vogue upon landing her first Louis Vuitton accessories campaign for the brand’s Capucines line . “I gotta put my computer in it, I gotta put this, I gotta put that. I’ve gotta have options.
I need options.” Despite having her pick of the house’s vast leather goods archive – she developed a particular fondness for the rereleased Diane this summer – Zendaya has landed on what many might consider the entry point into the logoed LV sphere: the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink tote aptly named the Neverfull. Unlike the Diane, which has become something of a ’90s sleeper hit owing to our current insatiable appetite for vintage, the 2007-launched Neverfull has never gone away.
A mainstay on the arms of anyone north of Birmingham and south of Leeds (Chester girlies, we see you!), the capacious carry-all, fashioned from monogram canvas and featuring side laces, once retailed in the hundreds and was the gateway into the luxury landscape for aspirational shoppers looking to the likes of Victoria Beckham – who was, for a time, loyal to the label’s splashy Stephen Sprouse line – for inspiration. While Zendaya is the woman who convinced Mugler to loan out its legendary gynoid suit and inspired Bob Mackie to save the most naked of his naked dresses for her, she is also the fashion fan who once proudly plastered the LV print across her MySpace page to impress fellow users. She is, as we know from her west London shopping habits (read: Gail’s, Waitrose) a “normie” at heart.
Zendaya needs somewhere to stash her Ottolenghi salad boxes and her Neverfull is the perfect receptacle. The 28-year-old’s style trajectory can best be illustrated by her choice of Neverfull. No classic yet WAG-adjacent brown exterior for Zendaya.
Rather, the Dune actor has been slinging her belongings – and her boyfriend Tom Holland’s new beverage line – into the black Epi leather iteration, which is decidedly more discreet than the original. A descendant of the Louis Vuitton Laundry and Navy bags, developed in the late 19 th century as “occasional” alternatives to the maison’s luggage trunks, the Neverfull still features the same sturdy rectangular base as its predecessors – perfect for shoppers, like Zendaya, who admits she’s “not always the most responsible bag owner”: “I might be throwing it around, it might get some real wear in it, you know, because I want to really use it.” Now considered as iconic as the Speedy and Alma, and the subject of much artistic licence, thanks to Vuitton collaborations with the like of Sprouse, Jeff Koons and Yayoi Kusama, it’s surely only a matter of time before we see Zendaya toting a rarer trophy buy than her safe Neverfull.
When she’s back in full-blown brand ambassador mode – we refer you to her ’80s fashion flex on the spring/summer 2025 front row – we’ll know about it. But the subtle power in wearing a seemingly attainable It-bag (her Neverfull now retails around the £1,800 mark) is not, however, to be underestimated. Louis Vuitton must be very happy with this booking indeed.
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