Fashion · The Bag Edit
The Fall It Bags
Five shapes, twenty-one bags — and the one designer who said no bags at all before handing the season its biggest trend.
Five shapes, twenty-one bags — and the one designer who said no bags at all before handing the season its biggest trend.
Pieter Mulier closed five years at Alaïa this season with a show Sarah Mower called quiet perfectionism. His own summary of it was blunter. “It's just really clothes for real people, not for an image. To reduce, reduce. No bags, no jewelry. Only beauty and clothes and a naked shoe. Because that's what Azzedine was.”
No bags. And yet he is the reason we're all carrying one particular shape this autumn.
During his tenure Mulier turned out a run of It-bags, the last being the Le Teckel — sausage dog in French, for the slimline shape — and that bag is why the east-west silhouette is everywhere right now. Same tuck-under-your-arm spirit, different houses. It was across the runways this season, and it will hold its value long after he's gone.
The rest of the season sorted itself into four more shapes. The half moon, which is the slouchy bag's more sculptural cousin. Croc, real or embossed, doing the work of elevating the plainest silhouette. The super shoulder, scaled up just enough to hold a laptop while still tucking under your arm. And the top-handle, which puts the whole profile of the bag on display and so has to be worth looking at.
Below, twenty-one of them across all five — the east-west, the half moon, the croc, the super shoulder and the top-handle. Buy the shape you'll actually carry, not the one that photographed best.
Every piece in the edit — tap to shop.
The long, low, tuck-under-your-arm shape, and the one to buy first. Alaïa does it twice — the Delta in suede with a top handle, and Le Clik in padded nylon — and the house has more claim to this than anyone. The Row's India is small textured leather in black. Prada's Bonnie is the one that goes from a desk to dinner without changing anything else about the outfit. Sleek but spacious, and it packs a punch without doing too much.
The crescent is the slouchy bag's more sculptural cousin — still slouchy, but not expressly relaxed. Saint Laurent's Mombasa in brown is the one you already know. Balenciaga's Rodeo Sling is the smallest here. Tod's Metal Dots is black leather with the studs, and Stella McCartney's Appaloosa comes in at twelve seventy-five. Bigger sizes for the day, smaller for the evening.
Tap any piece below to shop the whole edit.
Crocodile, whether real or embossed, elevates the simplest of shapes with a tactile, high-gloss finish. Toteme's is a croc-effect leather tote. Jacquemus does the small Valérie in croc-effect suede, which is a stranger and better idea than it sounds. And DeMellier's New York tote is seven hundred and fifty dollars, which for this finish is remarkable.
Shoulder bags are traditionally small, holding a few things and no more. Not this season. These are scaled up ever so slightly — still snug on the shoulder, still tucking easily under the arm, but with room for everything, and some of them will take a laptop. Bottega Veneta's Barbara is Intrecciato in espresso. Miu Miu's Adventure is large leather. Saint Laurent's Amalia is suede in brown, The Row's Terrasse is the quiet one, and Max Mara brings suede in under fourteen hundred.
A top-handle changes the whole act of carrying a bag, because it can only be held in one hand or slipped into the crook of an arm. Which means the profile is on display, so it had better be good. Loewe's Amazone is large suede in dark chestnut. The Row's Agnes 15 is the most expensive thing here and looks like nothing. Balenciaga's Rodeo leans into doctor-bag territory with the curve. Then two that cost a fraction — DeMellier's Stockholm at five ninety-five, and the COS Frieze bowling bag at three twenty-nine.
Every piece in this edit, by the houses behind it. Explore them all.
Mine is The Row Agnes 15. It's everything in one bag — the shape is effortless and it's timeless, which is a combination almost nothing else here manages.— K.W., Editor-in-Chief
The man who said no bags gave us the bag of the season. Buy the shape first — the house will still be there next year, and so will the bag.— ESVRA