The retail market may be wallowing in a deep, muddy puddle, but not so the accessories market, as American consumers purchase new accessories to spiff up their old clothes. The fashion-accessories market is expected to reach $20 billion by the end of 2012, a 24 percent increase from 2008, with handbags and neckties the most bullish of the accessories categories. Handbags earned a boost since becoming an "It" item, and ties earned a boost thanks to the male population's "increasingly sophisticated fashion sense." No word on how man purses or man skirts will fare in the coming years. [MarketWatch]