My time on the Leonardo da Vinci programme at an end, bags packed in anticipation of the flight home the next day, I really ought to have been casting a last nostalgic glance around the city.
They meet the Indigenous political adviser Stan Grant, dressed too smartly to be working a double-end bag at Tony Mundine's famed boxing gym.
Rafe Totengco, the accessories designer, said several of his luxury accounts balked when he told them he was designing a collection for Target last year and dropped his high-end bag collection.
Of course, he has noticed the amount of fur this season on high-end bags, adding considerably to the price.
"Nothing, nothing, nothing," a saleswoman in the Marc Jacobs section said, noting that the high-end bags are from Italy and the cheaper ones are from you-know-where.
This fall, Gucci has joined a growing list of companies inaugurating or reviving made-to-order programs to woo back their core customers -- those large-living plutocrats who first gave high-end bags their cachet.
With many high-end bags made in Italy and the Euro still going strong, prices for bags hitting stores this month could continue to rise, forcing the aspirational consumer to cut back.
"The problem we're solving is that there's a new, 21st century girl who doesn't have time to be super involved in fashion, or doesn't have the money to spend on high-end bags or high-end clothing," says Zolty.
Over the last 35 years, the high-end bags -- commonly flaunted as a status symbol among the rich and famous -- have increased in value by more than 500percentt, according to a study by online retail platform BagHunter.com.
At Century, the mid-century modern store with sleek, pricey clocks, watches, jewelry, and high-end bags, I chatted with Brenda LeBlanc, a dark-haired, butch year-rounder of my generation whose brother owns the store.
(C ) Cross-section TEM image showing the far distal end of BAG cilium with several dMTs (inset) at the edges of the BAG ciliary branches (black arrows) and associating with the ILso process.
