Do you wear your love of pasta on your sleeve? What about your shoulder? If so, here’s some exciting news: Fashion designer Nik Bentel has released a new pasta box-inspired handbag this year, and in my opinion, it is impastably cute. This is the kind of bag that says, “I like nice things, but I also like buying affordable pasta at the grocery store.”
This isn’t Bentel’s first pasta bag creation; last summer he released a purse that looked a lot like a box of Barilla Penne, and people ATE THAT S*@% UP (not literally, although the design did make it look edible which is pretty neat). The bag was so popular that Bentel had to turn off pre-orders so as to not promise more bags than he made (which was 100). He says he sold out of all 100 bags in under ten minutes and that there were “about 60,000 people” on his website at the time of the drop. That’s a staggering number for a designer fake box of noods.
This year, the bag was released at 10 a.m. on June 8, on Bentel’s website. Just like last year, he only made 100 and they sold out almost immediately. Unlike last year’s bag, however, this year’s bag displays only Bentel’s name and no pasta brand logos. Bentel says he decided to go with no brand name in particular this year, despite various pasta brands reaching out to him for a potential collaboration. However, you may notice that this new bag resembles a box of DiCecco.
As far as the pasta shape he went with this year, SURPRISE! It’s still penne. Penne “No. 002” to be precise. And I don’t think that number is just random; I think it’s to mark that this is his second ever pasta purse. The sequel: 2 pasta 2 furious, if you will. The actual DiCecco Penne pasta also has a number in the same place on the box, but I checked and it’s #40 for Penne Lisce and #41 for Penne Rigate. So clearly, Bentel didn’t just take inspo the box, but made it his own. What a baller. Or should I say, a “ballergnese.”
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!