Why Everyone Suddenly Wants to Sell You a Handbag

If it seems like a new handbag line is launching almost daily, it’s not your imagination.

In the past month alone, ready-to-wear label Nili Lotan; influencer-founded accessories company Aureum Collective; Los Angeles-based designers Jamie Haller and Janessa Leone and Guizio, which is best known for its sequined micro mini skirts, have all announced new bag lines. Big, mainstream brands are getting in on the action too: Old Navy recently released a line all priced under $50, while Alo Yoga made headlines with leather bags costing up to $3,600.

Consumers weren’t exactly hurting for choice when it comes to handbags. But many of the brands piling in now are sensing that the big luxury names that have long dominated the category have lost a step. Steep price hikes have put many of the most popular bags out of reach for all but the wealthiest consumers. A Chanel classic flap bag that cost $5,800 in 2019 now will run you $11,300, putting the accessory in the same territory as engagement rings, kitchen renovations and other (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime purchases. Complaints about diminished quality for some luxury bags have flooded social media.

Initially, luxury fatigue has proved a boon for independent bag brands such as Savette and Metier, accessory-focussed contemporary labels like Polene and accessible luxury stalwarts such as Coach and Ralph Lauren. Newer entrants are testing whether even brands that previously weren’t associated with bags can join in the gold rush.

For consumers, much of the appeal in these new offerings lies in their price: Nili Lotan’s Jane shoulder bag, for instance, costs $1,400, less than half of Gucci’s similarly-sized Horsebit 1955.

There’s more to it than the number on the tag, however. The most successful of the new bag brands already have a loyal following for their other products, often in adjacent categories (Haller primarily sells shoes, Leone hats, for instance). Handbags become part of the brand’s story, rather than coming off as a naked cash grab in a hot category.

“People are a little bit less tied to legacy and logos … they want to discover something new versus having the same bag as everybody else,” said Meaghan Mahoney Dusil, founder of the bag-focussed website PurseBlog. “It’s opening the door for the adjacent brands to extend into leather goods and do so credibly.”

For brands that can pull off that feeling of authenticity, the sky’s the limit.

“I always said to myself, ‘Wow, if I only had bags and shoes, I could double and triple my business,’” said Lotan; she plans to launch the latter later this year. “I’m ready for it.”

Why Bags Are Better for Business

Bags are the bedrock of the luxury business, making up a majority of sales at some labels. They’re easier to sell to consumers because there are no emotionally fraught fit issues. Consumers expect to use their bags for years, and will pay the price of a small appliance for the right one. And while there are “it” bags, standard silhouettes don’t change too much from season to season: There will always be demand for totes and crossbody bags.

Together, these factors explain why “bags are dramatically more profitable than clothes,” said Daniel Langer, executive professor of luxury strategy at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School.

Many bags keep contributing to a brand’s bottom line well beyond the point of sale. Customers are performing free marketing when they sling a distinctive silhouette over their shoulder.

“It’s a way for us to introduce our ethos to a brand new customer that may not have ever heard us,” said Leone, who has sold a small number of bag styles since 2022 and is launching her first full handbag collection with Moda Operandi this month.

Lotan, who is primarily known for her apparel, said customers have been asking her to make bags for years, but she expects that they will appeal beyond that core base. While she admitted that her slim-running clothes aren’t for everyone, she said there are “endless opportunities for women to carry my bag, even if they don’t wear my full wardrobe.”

Alo Yoga’s first bag was a tie-dye tote it gave away with purchases, the first indication that there was an appetite for Alo-branded purses or duffels. The attention-grabbing price tag is slightly less stratospheric in the context of the brand’s Alo Atelier line, which launched last year and includes $698 faux fur jackets and $758 cashmere pants, among other items.

“We saw our girl wearing Alo with designer luxury bags, which made it feel like a natural progression,” said Abby Gordon, Alo Yoga’s chief design and merchandising officer. “We see ourselves as a luxury performance brand. Luxury bags just felt like the next step.”

How to Get Bags Right

With consumers — especially Americans — beginning to pull back on discretionary spending, the new wave of bag designers are focusing on how they can convey value.

The sweet spot of the moment is at the “opening price point of luxury,” as Lotan put it, while emphasising quality. Lotan, Jamie Haller, Leone and Gordon all said their brand’s bags are made in Italian factories that produce for larger luxury labels. Brands are leaning into storytelling, talking about manufacturing processes on social media in order to break down a bag’s price, explaining the reasoning behind the cost, from production to fabric.

Haller said she plans to start with just two bags, an oversized clutch and a larger shoulder bag, to test her consumers’ appetite for the category, and roll out more according to demand. She also tested her bags for practical points, like the ability to fit a laptop, and adjusted accordingly. She primarily sells through her own channels, giving her more control over launch cadence and pricing.

“I have the ability to offer the product at the price I want, because I can adjust my own personal margins to support that,” she said.

But of course, it’s also about creating a bit of a fantasy around the bag itself. “No one buys a bag simply for the functionality of it,” said Langer. “The storytelling and the symbolism are very, very important.”

Some brands see this as a way to lean into more high-fashion positioning: Alo enlisted photographer Steven Meisel, known for his high-fashion imagery, to shoot a campaign starring top models like Candice Swanepoel and Amelia Grey, showing the bags alongside its signature workout sets. Lotan is investing more in marketing and PR to get the word out about the new offering. Others are leaning into social media, like Aureum’s founder Cass Dimicco, who will create social media imagery that shows how she’s styling the brand’s first bag, a boxy tote, alongside its other products. Haller is incorporating design elements from her line, like its Oxblood buffalo leather it uses in its best-selling loafers, to best position them for success.

Most of all, though, these brands are banking on the customers that already come to them for other products doing much of the proselytising for them.

“Trying to get cold eyes on something is almost impossible unless you have heaps of cash you can throw at,” said Leone. “We have the luxury of already having this conversation with our customer.”