Balenciaga New York Bazar Shopper Tote | Look 12, Resort 2018
The Souvenir Bag That Sparked a Lawsuit
This is the Balenciaga "Multicoloured New York Bazar Shopper" tote, look 12 from the Resort 2018 collection, the exact bag at the center of one of the most talked-about copyright disputes in recent fashion history. Rendered in vivid hot pink with a glammed-up New York City skyline, the Statue of Liberty, and script "New York City" lettering splashed across the front, the bag was designed to look almost identical to the cheap, kitschy souvenir totes sold in tourist shops and airport gift stores throughout the city, except Balenciaga's version retailed for close to $2,000.
Carried on a black leather top-handle strap, the oversized tote leans fully into its source material, right down to the loud, saturated colorway and cluttered, collage-style skyline graphic. It's a piece built entirely around the joke and the tension of its own existence: a nearly exact replica of a $20 tourist souvenir, repriced for the luxury market.
Shortly after the bag debuted, New York-based souvenir wholesaler City Merchandise, Inc. filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Balenciaga in the Southern District of New York, alleging that the tote's design was "virtually indistinguishable from its own registered New York City cityscape design". The complaint specifically called out Demna Gvasalia's history of drawing on existing designs, and the case drew widespread media coverage given the unusual optics of a souvenir company suing a luxury house for copying a $20 tourist bag and selling it for a hundred times the price.
Balenciaga initially pushed back, arguing that its tote featured fewer background buildings and a different layout of the city's landmarks than City Merchandise's design, and that any similarities did not rise to the level of copyright infringement. The two parties ultimately settled the case out of court in late 2019, with the terms kept confidential and the lawsuit dismissed.
Few Balenciaga accessories carry as much documented cultural and legal history as this tote. It's not just a design object, it's a physical artifact of a genuine fashion-law dispute that made headlines across major outlets, and a clear example of Demna Gvasalia's most provocative "elevated knockoff" design philosophy. For collectors interested in the story behind the object as much as the object itself, this bag is about as significant as archive Balenciaga accessories get.
Photography ©Balenciaga
Keywords: Balenciaga New York Bazar Shopper, Balenciaga Resort 2018, Balenciaga NYC tote bag, Demna Gvasalia souvenir bag, Balenciaga copyright lawsuit bag, Balenciaga archive resale