Trend Alert: When it rains, it pours designer umbrellas

MANILA, Philippines - At the CFDA Awards, comedian Tracey Ullman, best known for her aptly-titled show The Tracey Ullman Show, mimed a well-to-do society lady hiding in an alley behind Hermés transferring her purchases into a plastic bag with a pharmacist’s logo emblazoned on the shopping satchel.

Now that moneyed matrons and their equally high-flying ilk have found luxury shopping to be high risk at best (plus: everyone knows any real shopping is now done online — in the dead of night) what with the jeers and eye-rolling that accompany said purchases from pedestrians, what are fiscally well-endowed women to spend their money on?

If you saw Lanvin’s fanciful resort collection, which was filled to the brim with ideas for tropical jaunts and city trysts, then you’ll realize the new accessory du jour wasn’t the fabulous jewelry and hats (although: well played, Alber) but the printed umbrellas toted by models Elsa Sylvan and Emma Karlsson, attired in cuffed pants and slouchy jackets.

Remember the whole brouhaha that accompanied the debut of Burberry’s $500-umbrella a couple years back that had bloggers going apeshit online? For that price, many were noting, expect the designer gamp to protect you from skeevy dudes with toupees and major disasters ­— as well as, oh, sunlight and rain.

And if Alexander McQueen’s umbrella hats are any indication (as featured in the Craig McDean-shot editorial in this month’s W), high-priced parasols are here to stay. — Bea Ledesma