By Kate Krader
In the opening episode of Season 2 of "And Just Like That," there's a scene stealer, and it's not a dress or a celebrity: It's a purse stool.
"Oh, thank you, my bag was exhausted," says Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie, setting her Chanel purse down on the little white stool that's pulled up to the fancy restaurant table.
The miniature seats also add comic relief in "Emily in Paris": The show's star mistakenly sits on the little stand meant for her handbag at a Provence dining spot, revealing her naiveté.
Fine diners will recognise the purse stool as a familiar sight in high-end dining rooms. They are the kind of amenity you see in three Michelin-star French spots, where an army of waiters escort a woman to the bathroom, and there are several courses of amuse-bouche-or starters-before a meal actually starts.
Now, however, those opulent emblems are taking up real estate in more casual-dining rooms, from brasseries in Miami to steakhouses in Boston.
Part of the reason is simple: More people have fancy purses that they don't want sullied by the ground.
Luxury purses, new and vintage, are in high demand. Sales of fashion and leather goods at luxury group LVMH-home of Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior-rose 18% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022; the personal global luxury goods market grew by 22% in 2022 from 2021, to €353-billion, according to Bain & Co.
Besides the practical benefits of such stools, cultural superstitions from South America to Russia have added to the call for companion seats: In those countries, putting a bag on the floor is bad luck; it means you'll lose money.
And purses have gotten used to being taken off the ground. As the rise in counter dining has proliferated, so have the hooks that diners can hang bags on.
There's also the question of safety: A clutch that's within your line of sight is safer than one on the back of your chair.
These purse rests go beyond stools; they can take many forms, from a mini coat rack to a basket.
Even at fancy dining spots, the purse stool is proliferating more than it used to.
Jean-Georges at the Connaught in London, with a six-course menu that go for £135 (about R3 200), stocks five purse stools to be shared amongst diners.
At the more recently opened Riviera Restaurant, located in sister property the Maybourne Riviera in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, there are 20 tan purse stools; Bryan O'Sullivan Studio, which designed the restaurant, made them to match the decor.
But coordinated purse stools are modest compared to the ones offered at some notable dining spots, where they can cost more than the bags that rest on top.
Restaurant Le Dalí in Le Meurice in Paris stocks foldable perches made by Hermès. The caramel-coloured Pippa stools retail for almost £9 700.