Balenciaga attached a tote to an accessory for their spring/summer 2023 season. Now, Behati does the same

Balenciaga versus Behati. Photos: Balenciaga and behati/Instagram, respectively

Two weeks ago, we saw a bag that was so amazingly absurd, so impressively impractical, we had to stop and marvel at it. Clear it was that the tie and and the tote shared a love child. The design felt like a jenaka (joke) we had seen before. It hit us like a slap: this was a golden oldie, but with a glove instead of a tie. Back in the season of spring/summer 2023, Balenciaga sent out leather totes, with a full-sleeve glove attached to the opening of one handle that led the media to eagerly calling them “literal ‘handbags’”. Weeks earlier, at the jingoistic Behati ‘Merdeka’ show for Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week, there were totes attached to ties, worn around the neck, like a noose.

Behati’s Tan Kel Wen, lauded as KL’s charmer-boy, presented his most intriguing neckwear, yet. As part of the segment dedicated to baju sekolah (school uniforms), the ties were a gothic heavy, extra-bold exclamation mark, with the broader end that morphed into a tote at its base, looking like an unfilled gompa, those shoulder bags usually seen on monks. The tie, knotted in a manner that would incur the ire of the school’s disciplinary master, could pass as a kinky accessory that could lead to asphyxiation, especially when it is called a “tie beg (bag in Malay)”. The flat tote, clearly without gussets, did not appear willing to welcome contents.

Behati’s Tan Kel Wen, lauded as KL’s charmer-boy, presented his most intriguing neckwear, yet

In Behati’s jokey hybrid accessory, it is hard to deflect the direct echo of a global fashion zeitgeist, cultivated by Demna Gvasalia, now at Gucci. His ‘Glove’ tote wasn’t just a handbag; it was a conceptual wearable that married irony to surrealism. It exemplified Mr Gvasalia’s flair for recontextualizing mundane or forgotten objects—from trash bags and shopping totes to chip wrappers—into viral statement pieces. The ‘Glove’ bag was a provocative play on the phrase “handbag”, pushing the boundaries of what an accessory could be. By attaching a glove to a tote, he transformed a simple item into a conversation piece about utility, purpose, and absurdity. A bag need not be just a carrier; it can be a vehicle for a philosophical joke.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Behati jives to the same joget (social dance music). It’s one thing to be inspired by an idea, but it’s quite another to take the entire creative playbook and simply swap out the props, no matter how many cultural flourishes you add. The brand’s fans think that the tie-as-bag-as-tie is clever and unseen before, but true originality in fashion often lies not just in the final product, it is in the underlying concept too. This isn’t a banter between brands, but a running gag where one designer is frequently quoting the other. Ultimately, the Balenciaga bag is slick, minimalist, and emphasised its non-conformist, serious nature. Behati’s is, by contrast, a tribute act, less back-to-school than balik kampung.