PARIS: Take a stroll down Avenue Montaigne, still fashion's super-luxury destination in Paris, and there is no question about what is filling the windows of the upscale stores: handbags. And more handbags.

They come as mighty totes heavy with metal or as tiny clutches embedded with crystal. The shock is not that they now have prime place behind the plate glass. It is in the prices, which French law requires to be on display: €1,100, €1,700, €5,300. (Don't even think about what that means when translated into the flailing dollar.) When did the handbag break the €1,000 barrier? Why is it doubling that now?

It is handbag heaven for luxury-company honchos, who have found a product that, when powerful and creative design is injected, can become a hot property with a huge price tag. Where once the Hermès Kelly stood supreme, other brands have risen and exceeded its price level.

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