Gwen Stefani and Lesportsac: What?

In early 2002, rock star Gwen Stefani and handbag gepany Lesportsac collaborated to create the first of a series of handbag collections that would literally 'rock' the fashion world, and in the process make Gwen Stefani an even richer girl than she already was. The same could be said for Lesportsac, a brand previously associated with 90 year old women living in Boca Raton and Long Island. Gwen's super-charged goth aesthetic, cultivated through years of rocking with some of the coolest looking people on the planet--and, it must be added, designing several of her own costumes herself--instantly skytocketed the brand to a height it had never seen. Suddenly celebs like Carmen Electra, Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton, and Halle Berry began stashing their $4k Hermes bags under their respective beds in favor of the truly 'sporty' new collection of--what?!--LESPORTSAC bags.

('Waddup Paris'. . . "Not much.. New York is getting SO old man..but this bag Gwen told me to hold up in front of the cameras is justSO HOT! I think I might, like,actually wear it tomorrow too!")
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L.A.M.B. purses and accessories, ranging from heart-shaped wallets to backpacks to gigantic trunk-sized duffles, caused a true fashion frenzy: almost instantly they were seen swinging from the wrists of the fashion-conscious acrossthe globe, from the suburbs of America (where the bags were sold in virtually every Macy's in the country) to the way-too-cool-for-school shop rats in the harajuku districtof Tokyo. They were even featured in their introductory month in the FRONT windows of the Bloomingdales store on 59th and Lexington in New York--an amazing triumph for Lesportsac, considering the windows are usually reserved for brands like Fendi, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton. Though several 'patterns' were introduced--among them 'Rasta in Teak' and 'Rasta in Black', each adorned with rastafarian stripes running down the center and featuring a weird, strangely fashionable leopard-print lining-the pattern that REALLY caught the attention of the fashion press, the celebs, and the execs at Bloomingdales, was the now famous 'gothic' pattern which continues to define the L.A.M.B. brand Gwen carried with her after she packed her proverbial bag and dumped Lesportsac for greener ($$) pastures.
The print (seen on Paris, wearing the Baby Barrel above) defined the brand itself: L.A.M.B. stands for 'Love Angel Music Baby', a cryptic message scripted in a bold, white, NYTimes-style gothic front on the midnight black canvass of each wallet, wristlet, and bag in the collection. The phrase was followed by the less cryptic, but still, er, pretty cryptic, question: "Where did my lamb go?"Each item,including those in the Rasta pattern, was also decorated with a little something that just might be a Gwen (or Lesportsac?) original:a dangling,very conspicious'lamb' charm, made of sparkling or brushed metal, depending on the style of the item.

Here's a brushed 'gunmetal' version of the charm, dangling from a 1st Edition Rasta Black Tattoo Tote--one of the most popular and practical styles in thecollection, invented by Gwen herself and no longer being made by Lesportsac. How sad, losing a girl like Gwen :(
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The CHARM served to define the brand, crystallize the somewhat, er, crpytic message into an instantly recognizable 'icon', and, I declare, CREATED a fashion trend that continues to be copied by more 'respected' design houses, from Prada (who cleverly called their 'charm' a 'trick' and proceeded to charge more for the item than Gwen charged for some of her most expensive bags), to Marc Jacobs (the I'm-so-uncool cross-continential megastar who has coopted more looks and styles than Madonna, but unlike the latter, has yet to admit it.. and the list goes on..see for yourself at Louis Vuitton, D