French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is hot under the collar over a clothing manufacturer who has produced a white canvas shopping bag that uses her nude image as the design feature.  Her lawyer has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the former supermodel.

The trendy bags, produced by Pardon,  are being sold on the French island of Reunion and will be available soon throughout France, according to company manager Peter Mertes.

The wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be represented by her legal team in court on Monday.  Their mission is to get a judge to ban sales of the bag.  A spokesman for her lawyer Thierry Herzog said, “This bag makes use of Mrs Bruni-Sarkoszy’s image without her consent and for commercial gain.”

The image was taken from a 1993 black and white photo of the supermodel standing upright in the nude.  The famous photo sold at a New York auction early this year for $91,000.  It was offered up for sale along with nude pics of Kate Moss and Gisele Bundchen. Check out the story here.

Mertes has reportedly manufactured 10,000 of the nude bags already and has given most of them as gifts to clients who have bought other products.  He contends that he is entitled to use the photo because Bruni-Sarkozy is a public figure.

Check out the hangbags in our photo gallery below.  Click to enlarge.

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Filed under: Carla Bruni, Celebrities