The Price is Right -- Handbag Shoppers Take to the Streets

WASHINGTON _ It has a name like a traditional household item: the envelope. Or like food: the baguette, the pancake.

It sits locked behind a glass display window in a department store, or perched on a shelf in a trendy boutique. It also dangles, swinging in the wind, off a metal spike on a street vendor's cart.

For the discerning handbag lover, choices abound.

Only one universal truth emerges from the sea of slick leather, brushed tweed and glittery beading: Rarely does the perfect pocketbook come cheap.

Even the tiniest bags from popular designers such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton cost as much as $500 this season.
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