To paraphrase Sir Mix-a-lot, they like big bags and they will not lie.

As Ellen Tien notes in a recent New York Times article "Big Bag, Bigger Biggest," fashionistas everywhere are struck by the current bigger-is-better approach to carry-alls.

Why rent a posh apartment or buy an SUV, goes the conventional wisdom, when you can simply spend an equally ridiculous amount of money on a high-payload handbag?

Among other tidbits, Tien profiles a Devi Kroell bag that retails for $2890 but is in a style known as the "hobo." Ironic? Perhaps, but if you've got nearly three grand to drop on a handbag, I suppose you can call it whatever you like, from "hobo" to "vagrant" to "street urchin."