Paris Hilton is associated with many things — being an heiress, an entrepreneur, an activist and a Y2K fashion inspiration — but living on a budget is not often among them.

Affordability, however, is at the heart of Paris Hilton for Walmart, the namesake lifestyle brand she has developed in partnership with that big-box chain, where she recently introduced a line of handbags mostly priced under $30.

“It’s definitely a full-circle moment from ‘What’s Walmart?’ in ‘The Simple Life’ to having Walmart have walls of Paris Hilton product everywhere,” Hilton said, referring to the 2000s reality TV series in which she and Nicole Richie, another scion of wealth, traded their cosmopolitan lifestyles for tastes of rural America.

Since her partnership with Walmart, one of the country’s biggest retail chains, began last year, Hilton has put her name on ice cream makers, Santoku knife sets and baby clothing sold at the store. Makeup and bedding are in the works, too, she said.

The 13 handbag styles she has designed for Walmart include a quilted iridescent pink tote ($32); a heart-shaped denim cross-body bag that says “Paris” in sparkly lettering ($24); and a bowling bag featuring a print of smiling Pomeranian dogs ($25).

She sees them as alternatives to the designer bags from brands like Prada and Chanel that she often carries, prices for which “have gotten really high,” she said, as the global luxury market has continued to grow.

Bags are a category in which Hilton, 43, feels she has a particular expertise. At the peak of her early 2000s fame, certain styles she wore to Los Angeles nightclubs and Hollywood events — the Fendi Spy, the Dior Saddle, the Chloé Paddington — became widely coveted.

“It was before influencers,” Hilton said. “I had no stylist and was putting the looks together on my own.” Prices rarely factored into her choice of accessories, she added. “Every designer was sending me bags, so I wasn’t paying attention.”

Early 2000s fashion has lately had an outsize influence on young shoppers and stores that cater to them. In the past few years, dresses and miniskirts that look like carbon copies of clothing Hilton wore 20 years ago have proliferated.

Her recollection of the role she played in setting that era’s trends was befitting of a person who has been putting herself in the spotlight since her teenage years.

“When I look back at Y2K fashion, the one person I think had the biggest impact on handbags was me,” Hilton said.

Shop talk

Next week, Todd Snyder, the designer who helped modernize J. Crew’s menswear before starting his own namesake brand, is releasing his first collection for Woolrich, which appointed Snyder as its creative director in November.

His 65-piece Woolrich Black Label line, a new offshoot of the almost 200-year-old American brand, includes slick riffs on its classic outerwear and work wear. The line has two categories: heritage, which includes felted cashmere shirts and buffalo-check parkas, and technical, featuring items like parachute pants and hiking boots.

“I wanted to do a repeat of classics and inject modernity and technical materials with a luxury appeal to have some street cool factor,” Snyder said on a call Thursday, as he was cooking a brisket for the Rosh Hashana holiday.

The collection will be available online and at Todd Snyder stores starting Thursday. Prices range from $128 to $1,498.

Special sandals: Birkenstock, to commemorate its 250th anniversary this year, has released 250 pairs of a limited-edition style of its Kyoto sandal. The Kyoto Tradition sandal ($530) is made of deerskin sourced from what the brand said is the lone tannery in Germany that still softens hides with only salt, water and fish oil, a technique known in German as altsämisch, which was traditionally used to make lederhosen.

The sandals are embossed with an antler-shaped motif as an ode to what Birkenstock in marketing copy calls “Bavarian craftsmanship.”

A pastry-themed pop-up shop: Lydia Rodrigues Collection, a store in Manhattan’s East Village, is known for its eccentric selection of apparel and accessories — and for its seasonal pop-up shops curated around abstract themes. The concept for the latest pop-up, open through the end of October: croissants. (Past themes have included “potential” and “poetry.”)

Lydia Rodrigues, who started the business in 2015, has filled the store with products that to her embody certain qualities of croissants, like their buttery softness, layered construction and golden color. Items include clothing, jewelry and home goods from emerging brands like Extreme Cashmere, SC103, Aesa and Bless.

A certain pink suit

Viewers of the vice presidential debate last Tuesday may have noticed that Barbie-pink suits were worn by multiple female TV anchors and hosts that evening. Margaret Brennan of CBS News, a moderator of the debate, wore a pink blazer. CNN host Kaitlan Collins wore monochrome pink look. Taylor Tomlinson, the host of “After Midnight” on CBS, also wore the color.

Some of their clothes came from the same label: Argent. Collins and Tomlinson were among the women to wear its fluorescent pink suits Tuesday, as the brand kicked off the third iteration of a campaign it has promoted during election cycles in 2022 and 2020 to encourage voting and to advocate gender equality.

On social media, celebrities like Jessica Alba, Alicia Keys, former pro tennis player Andy Roddick and Bill Nye (the science guy) shared photos of themselves in pink Argent clothes — Roddick and Nye wore gender-neutral suits the brand introduced this year to complement the versions it sells in women’s sizing.

In a brief interview that has been edited and condensed, Sali Christeson, who founded Argent in 2016, shared her thoughts about the symbolism of a pink suit and the color itself.

Q: What did you make of Margaret Brennan wearing a pink suit jacket that was not from Argent on the day your campaign kicked off?

For her to make that choice shows a level of confidence and communicates something bigger. The choice of a suit is powerful and functional, and it’s something that’s long been tied to men. Wearing one in a color that’s been used as a pejorative at times, and reclaiming that, really communicates all the right messages from our perspective.

Q: Female politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and Nikki Haley, a Republican, have worn pink. What do you think this signals?

Gov. Whitmer wore our pink suit on election night in 2022, and she has been very vocal about leaning into pink as part of advice handed down from her mother. Nikki Haley used clothing in a similar way to convey a set of values. I think that’s what really good politicians do — they use dress choices to work in their favor. Without doing any talking they let outfits speak for themselves.

Q: Is pink a nonpartisan color?

I do think pink is nonpartisan. Women just feel emboldened right now and are eager to showcase that through their dress.