Celebrities Cannot Get Sufficient of the Valentino Cat Purse

With the Met Gala going down on Monday, the 2025 purple carpet season has formally come to an in depth. With all of the pomp and circumstance behind us, it is enjoyable to have a look again on the moments that outlined the season. There was Ayo Edebiri’s Julia Roberts-inspired swimsuit on the Golden Globes, a plethora of Audrey Hepburn cosplay on the Oscars, and the Betty Boop Bang takeover on the Met.

However for those who ask me, there’s been one true star of this awards season, and I am unable to cease serious about it:Valentino’s hand-painted cat clutch.

The $5,000 minaudière, which seems to be like a big retro ceramic cat, has been haunting my ideas since I first noticed it within the claws of Maude Apatow on the model’s Fall/Winter 2025 present this February. Since then, it is popped up on Colman Domingo on the Academy Museum Gala, singer Charlotte Lawrence a the 2025 Oscars, and, most lately, Clairo carried it down the blue carpet at this week’s Met Gala.

The 3D-printed purse seems to be similar to the classic knickknacks I spend hours trolling vintage markets for with my mother. The kitty’s pastel colours and huge eyes would make it really feel proper at dwelling in a Nineteen Fifties nursery or playroom. Actually, it seems to be a lot like a toy that Valentino’s web site presents the next warning: “This isn’t a toy however a bag for adults, maintain out of the attain of kids.”

Here is the factor. I do know that the bag is impractical. It is two months of lease, it isn’t hands-free, and the jury is out if it even matches an iPhone. However that is what makes it so enjoyable. We’re within the period of the foolish little accent—bag charms, animal-shaped hair clips, bizarre ballerina-sneaker hybrids—and the kitty purse is the ultimate boss of foolish little equipment.

The cat purse is even sillier than the ultra-viral JW Anderson pigeon purse or Loweve’s leather-based tomato clutch. A minimum of these are stylish in a unusual, artsy means. There is not any denying the cat is ridiculous—have a look at it is smirky smile!—putting it firmly within the kitschy campy class.

Which is what makes it so enjoyable. There may be actually nothing I like greater than a foolish little trinket—one have a look at my “woman mess” strewn desk or tchotchke-covered bookshelves would conform that—and that is the final word piece for the Sonny Angel connoisseurs. Who wants a bag appeal when your purse is the bag appeal?

It will not be essentially the most sensible, however I actually cannot cease serious about this purse and all of the adventures we may have collectively—she would look so cute clutched in my arms out to drinks, on the ballet, and for a day of window procuring in Soho.

And contemplating the state of…. the whole lot proper now, we may all use a reminder to not take issues so critically. Cat purse included.