I am a firm believer that accessories are a crucial component of any outfit. By simply adding the right bag or shoe, you can take an outfit from “just ok” to “wow.” Accessories are where you can be expressive and experimental with patterns, textures, and colors in a way that you can’t with ready-to-wear. Designers know this and take advantage of this fact season after season. There is a certain freedom in creating new bag shapes and sizes, from the super micro we’ve seen in bags like the Jacquemus “Le Chiquito” to the extreme oversized like Matthew M. Williams’ new designs for Givenchy. But despite the creative liberties available to designers, at the end of the day, it all comes down to sales and what extreme lengths people are quite literally willing to go to get their hands on. Creating something beautiful is always the aesthetic goal, but creating a frenzy—now that’s really the goal.
The way “It” bags get to be “It” is because of a frenzy. There is an insatiable desire for the public to obtain them and very rarely enough to go around. A simple supply and demand model. Celebrities naturally add fuel to the fire by being seen carrying the bag and all of a sudden it’s the most coveted and even harder to get. And although we’re living in a pandemic, quarantine and the lack of places to go has done little to change this tried and true model. Telfar can hardly keep bags in stock and every new drop is sold out in a matter of seconds (no, literally, it’s that quick) and Bottega Veneta’s success can be measured by the number of imitation bags they have inspired other brands to make to merely keep up. We’ve rounded up this season’s most popular and sought after bags into a comprehensive list so you’ll always know what to set alerts for to purchase.
TELFAR
PRADA
BURBERRY
YUSEFI
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
BRANDON BLACKWOOD
VALENTINO
BY FAR
BOTTEGA VENETA
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