# Prof. Thomaï Serdari discusses the high-end handbag market

1 Faculty News October 28, 2014 ![](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/baffler.jpg?itok=2virIcik)>

Excerpt from [The Baffler](http://www.thebaffler.com/blog/status-bag-bubble-wont-pop/) -- "[Serdari](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/Thomai%20Serdari) suggests that it is actually the increasing popularity of lower- and mid-level bags that now drives up the cost of higher-level bags. And there’s still a market for them, even at a 150 percent mark-up. Serdari says that, just as existing brands are hiking up their costs to distinguish themselves from the rest, a newly reinvented fashion brand (like Céline) might today choose to produce bags with the most marked increase (at, say, $2,500—up from $1,000 ten years ago)."

[Read more](http://www.thebaffler.com/blog/status-bag-bubble-wont-pop/)