Are You Also a Lover of 2 or 3 Very Different Bag Brands?

[880]

+1 with @Joule for bag promiscuity

 

[Evia]

I am curious. Does anyone else limit the amount of handbags you can own? I made a decision during summer 2020 that I can only own max 20 handbags. For that reason alone, owning handbags from multiple brands in different price points seems like a practical decision for me.

I don’t set myself a limit, but I usually hover around 10 to 14 bags. I think I have 10 or 11 at the mo. It’s enough for me. I prefer to wear my favourites all the time and when it gets above a certain number there are bags I find I’m not wearing, which I then prefer to get rid of. I’m not a collector by any stretch.
Since the pandemic landed I haven’t even thought about buying another bag because I’m hardly wearing the ones I have, sadly. Can’t summon up the enthusiasm to buy.

 

[catsinthebag]

@papertiger , I’m so glad you started this thread — “split designer loyalty,” describes me! The threads titled “Should I sell all my x brand bags for y brand instead” always feel wrong to me. I love Hermes, but why would that mean I need to get rid of my Chanel, or other bags from other brands?

What I’ve come to realize over the course of years of bag obsession is that no one brand works for me all the time, but there are some very specific styles that do, or that I just love enough to make them work: the Hermes Kelly and Evelyne, the Chanel Reissue, the BV Nodini. I like classic, clean lines and simple designs. Generally, I don’t like logos — I wear the Evie with the H facing me, and the one LV I have is in Empreinte leather, which I still feel is too conspicuous, but the style (Speedy) is so useful, I use the bag a lot anyway.

It’s taken a long time for me to stop discovering a bag I love, and then turning it into a need to buy more of that brand. I did that with BV — ended up with four of their bags, but only two I really use. Lesson learned (well, for now anyway!)

I’ve also become super picky about function. I guess one good thing about starting to buy really expensive bags is I’m much less willing to compromise. So, while I love my Kelly’s and Evelynes, I am pretty certain I will never want a Birkin or a Lindy or a Constance. And I’m never giving up my Reissues!

Each bag fills a particular space, either functionally or stylistically (ideally both). And no one brand can do it all for me.

 

[papertiger]

I’m in between. I sold every luxury bag I had (LV, Celine, Fendi, Givenchy, Tods) to buy H. But, I still have Coach bags and 1 Coach wallet. So my collection now consists of H and Coach.

I still like Coach, especially their glove tanned leather and their heritage styles. I feel like I can experiment more with color with Coach whereas with H I feel like I “ought” to buy only the neutrals because of the price point. I feel that Coach provides amazing value and craftsmanship. This is why I’ve sworn off LV. Too expensive and too poorly made. For that much money just save a bit more and get H.

Nowadays I use my Coach bag every day and love it very much. Another brand I still like is Fendi. I like the quirkiness of their designs. There are lots of look alike designs but nothing really looks like a Fendi bag.

So, I would say my favorite brands are Coach, H and Fendi. In no particular order!

I can relate!

 

[papertiger]

I am curious. Does anyone else limit the amount of handbags you can own? I made a decision during summer 2020 that I can only own max 20 handbags. For that reason alone, owning handbags from multiple brands in different price points seems like a practical decision for me.

I have basically one more 'place' for an H bag.

Gucci, I like historical examples of bags. They also have so many sales.

Other brands I limit more severely. I haven't bought a new Chanel bag 'forever' even though I was totally drawn to the Coco Handle. I think I have al my Chanel 'genres' covered already.

 

[papertiger]

I have an eclectic style and so I've found myself purchasing bags from a variety of brands. As prices go up and quality goes down, I just try to find bags that fit with my style but will hopefully hold up longer than most. Over the past year or two my comfort-level in spending has gone down, which makes it harder to find bags that are not as trendy. I have Chanel, Gucci, SL, Chloe, Prada, Burberry, Mulberry, and a few contemporary bags. I've never explored brands like Celine and Dior because they are not sold where I live and are not sold online (H is out of my price range). I am too apprehensive of the pre-loved market to go that direction. This was a long way of saying that I don't seem to have brand loyalty. Some brands I might have stuck with if they didn't change their style for the worse or if their prices hadn't gone up so much in such a short time.

It would be nice if brand were more loyal to their customers.

 

[papertiger]

Totally. I am fascinated by people’s commitment to a brand and the collections they build around it. And by all those stories about being a Chanel girl and then moving on to Dior, or about starting the Hermes journey.

I am a very simple soul. I don’t identify with brands at a personal level and don‘t embark on journeys but simply go shopping. I like fashion and dreasing up and to me bags are just a part of the whole equation. I like quite a number of bag designs and designers. I guess the ones that make more appearances right now in my current non-collection are Hermes, Loewe and vintage Chanel, but I love many others and it will be a different ranking at some other time.

I don't know if my loyalty has to do with the brand particularly so much as the style(s) quality and aesthetic often suit me best.

Of course if they change their style, lower their quality (just pausing to spit at Gucci's "easy to clean" microfibre lining) it's much harder to be loyal.

 

[papertiger]

@papertiger , I’m so glad you started this thread — “split designer loyalty,” describes me! The threads titled “Should I sell all my x brand bags for y brand instead” always feel wrong to me. I love Hermes, but why would that mean I need to get rid of my Chanel, or other bags from other brands?

What I’ve come to realize over the course of years of bag obsession is that no one brand works for me all the time, but there are some very specific styles that do, or that I just love enough to make them work: the Hermes Kelly and Evelyne, the Chanel Reissue, the BV Nodini. I like classic, clean lines and simple designs. Generally, I don’t like logos — I wear the Evie with the H facing me, and the one LV I have is in Empreinte leather, which I still feel is too conspicuous, but the style (Speedy) is so useful, I use the bag a lot anyway.

It’s taken a long time for me to stop discovering a bag I love, and then turning it into a need to buy more of that brand. I did that with BV — ended up with four of their bags, but only two I really use. Lesson learned (well, for now anyway!)

I’ve also become super picky about function. I guess one good thing about starting to buy really expensive bags is I’m much less willing to compromise. So, while I love my Kelly’s and Evelynes, I am pretty certain I will never want a Birkin or a Lindy or a Constance. And I’m never giving up my Reissues!

Each bag fills a particular space, either functionally or stylistically (ideally both). And no one brand can do it all for me.

I'm glad to mind another of like mind.

It's defiantly more about the bag than the brand.

 

[momoc]

YES totally I do this. I do not understand the idea of being blindly loyal to one brand (and I know there are plenty of H only folks among those of us hanging out at the Hermes forum so I've always felt like I'm in the minority there). My two loves right now are H and LV, and am always open to discovering more. I do tend to like the less popular LV styles though (like not a lot of their IT bags of the moment / common monogram pieces but some of the less obvious stuff. For example, the bag style I own multiples of at LV is the Capucines).

The thing to me is that the two different brands are *for* different things (style/utility/etc.) and I think I actually need quite different brands to cover everything I like. When a brand is close to another in terms of their ideas / philosophies / styles, I think I would end up choosing one brand to stick with, simply because I'm lazy haha.

Also definitely if a brand changes I can fall out of love with it, and I've done that with Celine and Chanel.

ETA: my collection also has a lot of other brands too, but H and LV are the two I'm most actively buying from

 

[Christofle]

Way too many fun and exciting bags out there to limit oneself to a small sample of brands! Pretty much every brand has at least one fun and interesting bag so I'm here to collect them all. From small family-run businesses to "premier" designers and everything else in-between.

...and with regards to brand loyalty, it is far too hard to remain loyal when a design house's brand ethos can take a complete 180 after a new lead designer is appointed!

 

[jade]

...and with regards to brand loyalty, it is far too hard to remain loyal when a design house's brand ethos can take a complete 180 after a new lead designer is appointed!

Yeah, I wish the brands would still have personalities and stay the same. This happens more at the low end - Kate Spade is always preppy, girly, and whimsical. You know you can go there for a classic shape, lots of color, some embellishment, and a few playful special editions.

But at the high end, you look at how brands like Saint Laurent, Celine, BV, and Givenchy have done like a 180 when the designer changes over, and it is really frustrating. I feel like the only brand that didn't seem like they trashed their old identity when the creative director shifted was Mulberry. I think the new bags still have some of the same roots of the older ones.

 

[papertiger]

YES totally I do this. I do not understand the idea of being blindly loyal to one brand (and I know there are plenty of H only folks among those of us hanging out at the Hermes forum so I've always felt like I'm in the minority there). My two loves right now are H and LV, and am always open to discovering more. I do tend to like the less popular LV styles though (like not a lot of their IT bags of the moment / common monogram pieces but some of the less obvious stuff. For example, the bag style I own multiples of at LV is the Capucines).

The thing to me is that the two different brands are *for* different things (style/utility/etc.) and I think I actually need quite different brands to cover everything I like. When a brand is close to another in terms of their ideas / philosophies / styles, I think I would end up choosing one brand to stick with, simply because I'm lazy haha.

Also definitely if a brand changes I can fall out of love with it, and I've done that with Celine and Chanel.

ETA: my collection also has a lot of other brands too, but H and LV are the two I'm most actively buying from

Similar to me. I have other brands and actively wear them (when I've got anywhere to go which isn't so much lately). I spend my time more actively 'keeping-up' with the goings-on at H and Gucci mostly, even if I'm not buying anything at all.

 

[papertiger]

Yeah, I wish the brands would still have personalities and stay the same. This happens more at the low end - Kate Spade is always preppy, girly, and whimsical. You know you can go there for a classic shape, lots of color, some embellishment, and a few playful special editions.

But at the high end, you look at how brands like Saint Laurent, Celine, BV, and Givenchy have done like a 180 when the designer changes over, and it is really frustrating. I feel like the only brand that didn't seem like they trashed their old identity when the creative director shifted was Mulberry. I think the new bags still have some of the same roots of the older ones.

I think you're right, why throw the baby out with the bathwater?

 

[papertiger]

Way too many fun and exciting bags out there to limit oneself to a small sample of brands! Pretty much every brand has at least one fun and interesting bag so I'm here to collect them all. From small family-run businesses to "premier" designers and everything else in-between.

...and with regards to brand loyalty, it is far too hard to remain loyal when a design house's brand ethos can take a complete 180 after a new lead designer is appointed!

ITA

I really enjoy such a positive view of this too.

 

[doni]

Yeah, I wish the brands would still have personalities and stay the same. This happens more at the low end - Kate Spade is always preppy, girly, and whimsical. You know you can go there for a classic shape, lots of color, some embellishment, and a few playful special editions.

But at the high end, you look at how brands like Saint Laurent, Celine, BV, and Givenchy have done like a 180 when the designer changes over, and it is really frustrating. I feel like the only brand that didn't seem like they trashed their old identity when the creative director shifted was Mulberry. I think the new bags still have some of the same roots of the older ones.

And yet, for example Celine now is far more similar to and in tune with 70s and 80s Celine than Philo’s ever was. Not defending Slimane but just saying. Basically it feels like he’s been confined for months inside the house’s archives and he is totally into that bourgeoise French provincial girl which is what Celine was always about before Philo came along.
Same for BV, people are distraught that Maier’s heritage is being put aside, and I get it, but he himself brought his own very personal vision to the brand.
And last time Givenchy had anything to do with Hubert de’s vision was before he passed away...

I think it is just the way it is nowadays. But I also feel that if anything there is more respect for the heritage of the brand now than in, say the 90s. Designers seem to enjoy the roaming through the archives, like de Michele. I don’t think classics have ever been more in trend than now!