Influencer Victoria Paris faces backlash after purposefully destroying Gucci bag

‘Isn’t the whole point to let the bag age by itself with use?’ said one TikTok follower

Influencer Victoria Paris poses on Instagram (Instagram)

Influencer Victoria Paris has faced an online backlash after destroying a $5,000 Gucci bag purely for the look.

In a since-deleted video posted on 30 April, the popular social media personality shared clips of herself to her 1.9 million followers slamming her purse against wooden steps to give it a worn-in effect. Multiple users reacted to Paris’s TikTok video in shock and disgust, with one user - who goes by the name of @floorkruk - stitching the video to show viewers the purse’s $5,000 price tag. The user’s stitch had almost 1,000 flocking to the comment section, voicing their disbelief.

“I had to pick up my jaw from the floor... WHY??” one person wrote. “Isn’t the whole point to let the bag age by itself with use???”

“Why would she not just… use the bag to get it to look like she wants!” another added, while some else commented: “Like why not just... simply use the bag to make it seem... used.”

Others pointed out that Paris was making a mockery out of people who could barely afford luxury goods or let alone pay their bills and groceries.

“Yet most of us are deciding between getting gas or food this week lol,” one user commented.

“3k would literally fix all of my problems [right now] but pop off queen!” another person said.

Some defended Paris’ bag abuse, writing that she was emulating what style icons Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Jane Birkin did with their own bags.

“It was a joke,” one person wrote “She trashed a different [old] bag, not the expensive Gucci one.”

“Didn’t she like buy it? So she can do whatever she wants to do with it,” someone else argued.

The Jane Birkin effect some assumed she was attempting has garnered traction online, with some users pointing out that Birkin - the icon who inspired the famed Hermès Birkin in the 1980s -notoriously used her purses until they were on their last legs. She was known to adorn the straps of her purses with various trinkets including jewelry and scarves, personalising it in a way that made it unequivocably her.

Marie Claire’s fashion director Naomi Smith noted: “At Miu Miu and Balenciaga this year was what I would call ‘the Jane Birkin effect’ – large carry-all bags with keys, trinkets, personal effect and stuffed full (even with shoes hanging out) all reminded me of Jane Birkin’s famous Hermes bags, which were often stuffed to the brim and decorated with keys, chains and trinkets.”

Birkin reportedly came up with the design while seated next to Jean-Louis Dumas, the CEO of Hermès, on an airplane. At the time, she had sketched a design on the back of a paper bag to the intrigue of Dumas. The Birkin bag is now one of the most highly coveted bags in the world, with celebrities like the Olsen twins often photographed around New York City haphazardly sporting the purses, using them as Birkin intended.