Earlier this week, resurfaced photos of Chinese actress Zhang Jingyi went viral, which saw the star carrying a yellow plastic bag on a red carpet in Beijing last year. Somehow, the discourse turned to debates around whether she was carrying a Balenciaga trash bag or not (it turned out she was not—it was just a regular non-designer plastic bag). While the discourse turned out to be misleading, the internet chatter still had many wondering: Does a Balenciaga trash bag actually exist?
The answer is, somewhat unsurprisingly yes, it does. First debuted in Balenciaga’s fall 2022 season, then-head designer Demna—who is now at Gucci—created leather bags that were designed to look like white or black trash bags. (Since then, he’s also shown leather clutches shaped into crumpled chip bags). The pouches retailed for a luxurious $2,100. Clearly, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
It’s not the first time fashion has attempted to glamorize an unlaundered piece, either. At the recent fall 2026 Prada menswear show in Milan, for one, stained shirts came down the runway. This was no accident: Designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons presented deliberately-stained dress shirts, the cuffs and collars punctuated with artful splatters and splotches.
Why, you might ask, would such a fashion house want to make its clothes or accessories look worn-and-torn? “Built on traces of tradition, pieces are composed with familiar elements transformed through a questioning of convention,” read the official Prada collectsion show notes. A runway piece looking anything less than picture-perfect certainly defies convention, but the ragged shirts served a specific purpose—to offset the sharp tailoring and smart coats that they were paired with, making them feel just a little more authentic, lived in, and, frankly, real.
Over the years, fashion has been pretty obsessed with taking other familiar closet staples—like a crisp white sneaker, or knit crewneck sweater—and well, f-ed them up. It’s an eye-catching way to demystify the world of high-fashion, that’s for sure.
Back in the resort 2018 season, for instance, Gucci made waves when it showed white sneakers that looked like they had just been on a dusty trail run—the luxurious styles covered in a grimy-gray effect. Brands like Golden Goose continue to sell similar styles, doubling down on the idea that distressed can be chic.
Luxurious bags have gotten similar treatments. Back in spring 2014, Chanel—during the Karl Lagerfeld era and to much uproar—released a dirtied, graffitied collectsion of totes and backpacks (some of which go for upwards of $15,000 now).
Tattered, ripped jeans, and ruined knits have also had many moments on the catwalk. Back in spring 1998, Helmut Lang showed a series of paint-splattered jeans that many still often replicate today (like when Raf Simons collaborated with artist Sterling Ruby on acid-wash denims for fall 2014). During the fall 2016 season, Rick Owens presented knit sweaters that oozed with a dripping motif from the neckline—as though someone had dropped an entire can of paint all over them.
There’s no question that this approach has been a recurring runway trend, to strip down items and make them feel a little less precious. But given the price tag for such pieces does not reflect something that is actually ruined—in fact, these pieces can be even more expensive than normal ones, as it took a lot of time and effort to make them look so disheveled!—the question is, are people actually wearing them? Or is this just a runway novelty?
That quandary could be why so many internet users were debating whether Zhang Jingyi was carrying a Balenciaga trash bag or not this week. It’s hard to tell these days. When the Prada stained shirts came down the runway a few months ago, the jury was split over the wearability of such pieces. One TikTok user called it “collapsed economy core,” while another speculated that the aesthetic choice was actually a clever nod to the popularity of secondhand Prada pieces. (Because admit it: If you stumbled upon a priceless runway piece on The RealReal, you may just overlook a stain or two.)
Whatever your opinion on the fad is, perhaps the takeaway here is not to spend thousands on artfully-stained pieces, but rather to be less precious about the fashions we do own and love. We should wear our clothes and shoes and bags, and wear them well. Remember when Mary-Kate Olsen walked around with a wine-stained Balenciaga City bag in the 2000s? Or how Jane Birkin used to overstuff her luxurious Birkin bags? More of that energy in 2026, please: Love the things in your closet, and give them a well-earned life! Life is not perfect, and our wardrobes shouldn’t have to be.
