When Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia unveiled his autumn/winter 2022 collection, it featured a blizzard-strewn runway, where models stumbled down clutching their belongings in plastic rubbish bags.
It was a poignant and powerful comment on the plight of people in Gvasalia's adoptive homeland, Ukraine, which had just been invaded by Russian troops.
Fast forward four months and the war in Ukraine is still ongoing. Now Balenciaga has released the same garbage bags for sale, priced at $1,790.
Scroll the gallery above to see other high-end brands that reinterpreted high-street items.
Called the Trash Pouch, it is, according to Balenciaga's own website, "inspired by a garbage bag" and comes in three colours: black, blue and white. With a rubbish bag-style drawstring to close, the black and blue bags have a black tie, while the white has a red one.
"I couldn't miss an opportunity to make the most expensive trash bag in the world, because who doesn't love a fashion scandal?," says Gvasalia to Women's Wear Daily.
Controversial as it may be, he is not the first to have the idea. In 2017, Spanish brand BIIS released a range of rubbish bag-inspired totes in leather. Called the Bin Bag, it came in sizes small, medium and large and cost $258, $346 and $422, respectively.
Fashion is famous for, and actively encourages, outrageous ideas. In 2016, skate brand Supreme sold ordinary clay house bricks for $30 each. A plain brick with the word "Supreme" stamped on one side, it sold out in minutes and days later was trading for up to $1,000 on resale sites.
Gvasalia has also provided some of his own provocative fashion moments. In March, he wrapped Kim Kardashian in Balenciaga yellow and black warning tape, and in 2017, he created a duplicate Ikea blue shopping bag. While the Swedish version retails for about $0.99, the Balenciaga version cost $2,145.
Ikea had a rather elegant reaction. "We are deeply flattered that the Balenciaga tote bag resembles the Ikea iconic sustainable blue bag for $0.99. Nothing beats the versatility of a great big blue bag," said a spokesperson to Today.
