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Technically the famed Italian fashion house is marketing said paperclip as a “money clip” but I have a sneaking suspicion that both fashion fanatics and those less interested see it for what it really is, a glorified piece of stationary retailing for a stellar £340.

The most mind-boggling part of this whole designer paperclip debacle is that this isn’t the first time they’ve sold it. Back in 2017, the brand launched the same product, however this time it was priced at a more affordable £145 (I guess that's inflation huh?) 

As you can imagine the world went crazy, just like it is today. One fan (or cynic) even made the paperclip it's own Instagram, which sadly isn't doing great follower-wise.

On the Prada website, they describe the item as a "Sleek money clip with engraved lettering logo"© Prada
On the Prada website, they describe the item as a "Sleek money clip with engraved lettering logo"


In recent years designer brands have leaned into their humorous side to create expensive versions of typically affordable items. Any publicity is good publicity right?

Back in 2016, Christopher Kane started selling neon cable ties for £23 after using them as hairbands and bracelets on the spring/summer 2016 catwalk. 

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Neon yellow and orange cable ties are worn as bracelets on the Christopher Kane Spring Summer 2016 catwalk© Catwalking
I mean these are kinda cute right?

When Pharrell Williams took the Louis Vuitton reigns back in February of last year, his first collection for the house featured a £2,460 leather sandwich bag.

A model wearing a oversized denim jacket poses with the Louis Vuitton leather sandwhich bag© Louis Vuitton
Imagine pulling up to the staff room and getting your lunch out of a LV sandwich bag...

Balenciaga has been known to cause their fair share of conflicting fashion views. Back in 2017, creative director Demna Gvasalia reinvented the famed IKEA Frakta bag which shoppers usually pay $0.75p for and whacked a whopping £1,365 price tag on it. Before that, there was the whole DHL logo scenario, where Demna adorned the well-known courier services logo across jumpers, t-shirts, hats and basically every other accessory possible. 

A guest of Balenciaga's 2017 show wears a blue coat and matching blue bag with a brown hat© Kirstin Sinclair
The famous IKEA Frakta bag dupe was spotted in the wild back in 2017

Just recently Balenciaga also collaborated with the elite superfood store Erewhon to create a brown shopping bag, which according to Variety, “one onlooker whispered, ‘I heard the bags are $1,000.'” Kim Kardashian was of course the first to sport the bag, trading in her Birkin for the brown paper bag at last year's Fall 24 fashion show in Los Angeles. 

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In Prada’s defence, they knew exactly what they were doing when they reintroduced the branded paperclip. It’s both comical and ironic because everyone knows that the only people who would actually ever use this are those in the % who deal exclusively with cash money.

The real question is, will you be copping?

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