Estée Lauder has stepped up its gift-with-purchase game tremendously lately. I'm an unrepentant sample tramp but I don't even want the beauty items in these GWPs – I only want the bags! Throughout the spring the company has released four bags adorned with Harper's Bazaar covers from the late '20s and early '30s.
(image from esteelauder.com)
(images from ebay.com)
(images from harpersbazaar.com)
(image from tradesy.com)
How the collaboration with the publication came about I don't know, but at least the images are straightforward reproductions of the covers. The other set of GWP bags that Estée has come up with this spring, however, are much trickier to decipher. Apparently these illustrations are taken from their spring 1969 campaign.
(image from ebay.com)
(image from ebay.co.uk)
(image from ebay.com)
While the bags were available at department stores in the U.S., Debenham's in the UK also offered them and provided this description: "Taking inspiration from Estée Lauder's brand heritage, this iconic-print bag has been inspired by Estée Lauder's 1969 luxury makeup collection and book 'a taste for Apricot'." Obviously I went searching for this "Taste of Apricot" and couldn't find anything beyond a copyright record, a newspaper ad and an ad in New York Magazine, none of which had any of the same illustrations from the bags. And these aren't new illustrations by a contemporary artist inspired by the 1969 collection either – I gathered these were actually from the 1969 campaign, since Estée advertised these as being from their archives. Too bad they refuse to let anyone see the original drawings! I would have emailed them as I did to get further information on their traveling compact museum, but I have no hope of them providing an answer, seeing as how I just received a rather useless reply this past week (a mere month after I had contacted them originally):
"Thank you for your interest in Estée Lauder. I suggest that you visit our corporate website www.elcompanies.com where there is information about all of our brands, and you can also click on 'Site Map' and select a topic that would be informative or of interest to you. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your question, and sincerely hope I was able to be of assistance. You are valued as our consumer and we hope you will continue to use and enjoy our products with confidence and satisfaction."
LOL. So, yeah, not going to waste my time trying to get answers from Estée on these bags.
Anyway, what do you think of these? Do these "iconic" prints make you more likely to buy something in order to get the GWP?