Dana Thomas is Newsweek's Paris-based Culture and Fashion writer, and she has a new book coming out called Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster that talks all about luxury brands and the very thing that has basically saved them this millennium – the It Bag.

An interesting stat that Ms. Thomas found, courtesy of a yearly survey by one of our favorite purse purveyors, Coach is that in less than five years, the number of handbags that the average woman bought doubled. In 2000, it was roughly two new purses a year, while just four short years later in 2004, it was four. That is unprecedented growth for any retailer, not to mention the usually niche luxury market.

But, as Ms. Thomas points out, luxury brands (particularly handbags) have become almost commonplace, and therefore lost their luster a bit. But most luxury brands wouldn't have it any other way. "The bag is the miracle of the company" gushes Miucci Prada to Thomas in her book.

With Louis Vuitton selling more than 40% of their goods at their flagship Tokyo store in just leather goods alone (most of which are handbags and matching wallets), we can see why some luxury brands are not so quick to try and pull back the reigns on this trend. They have $11.7 billion reasons to keep the current bag-obsessive trend. That would be the sales of handbags in 2004.