Bags

L.L.Bean Tote: The Ice Carrier That Became the Maine Boat and Tote

This L.L.Bean tote edit covers the Boat and Tote in open-top and zip-top, tall and long-handled versions, prints and seasonal colors, plus minis and pouches. I keep coming back to how a bag made for hauling ice in 1944 now carries everyone's laptop.

BY FAR Shoes and Bags: The Pieces Worth the Price

BY FAR is the Sofia label two twin sisters and a friend started in 2016 to make leather shoes you could actually walk in. I like how it remembers the 1990s without dressing up as them, so this edit is the shoes and bags I would start with.

The Wolf Gang Dresses: What I'd Actually Buy

The Wolf Gang is an independent Adelaide label that began with a suede pouch and a tassel and grew into dresses, denim and bags with a lot of personality. I love a brand that dresses for the trip and the long lunch at the end of it.

VERAFIED Handbags: The Pieces Worth the Price

VERAFIED is the New York handbag label Vera C. Wang started in 2020, built on sculptural shapes and a refusal to rush. I like bags that have a reason for every curve, and these do.

Rebecca Minkoff Bags: Which Styles Are Worth It?

Rebecca Minkoff is the New York label that grew out of one bag designed for the morning after. I keep coming back to how practical her shapes are, with just enough downtown edge to make them mine.

florabella Bags: A Shopper's Guide to Best Buys

florabella is the Dallas resort label of raffia bags, wide-brim hats and cover-ups, started in 1998 and named for a woman who loved fashion and travel. I love a brand that packs a whole vacation into three accessories.

Stoney Clover Lane Bags and Pouches: What I'd Buy First

Stoney Clover Lane is the colorful travel-accessories label two sisters started from their bedroom floor in Palm Beach. I love that it makes organizing feel like dressing up, and this edit is what I would pack first.

Away Travel Bags: The Pieces Worth the Price

Away is a New York travel brand from Jen Rubio and Steph Korey, built around clean design and clever organization. I like the idea that a suitcase should be considered, and this edit packs the bags I would reach for first.

Leather Tote Bags: Burberry Check, Suede and Leather Totes

A good leather tote has room for a whole day and a shape that keeps the contents from turning into a loose pile. I look first at the opening, then the handles, across Burberry check totes and suede and leather styles.

Flower Girl

Pastel dresses for spring events

Flower Child

Soft florals with free-spirited silhouettes. Phia’s edit of blooms designed for everyday rebellion.

An Evening Clutch Can Change the Whole Exit

Shop evening clutches by texture and shape, from satin and braided designs to embellished jacquard and box silhouettes, and choose one standout detail.

Midnight Walk

Dark romantic lace, unexpected sheers and a bit of glimmer for a moody evening out. It is for anyone who dresses for the walk after dinner.

Convertible Bags

One bag, several ways to carry it, from shoulder to crossbody to backpack.

Vacation Essentials: Swim, Dresses, And Bags

What Phia’s SVP of Global Media packs when she’s out of office.

Fortune Croissant Bag: The Lemaire Bag Shaped Like Its Name

The Lemaire Fortune Croissant bag is a curved, hardware-light shoulder bag in leather or wool felt, with just a strap and a zip. I go through how the two materials behave, the mini and medium sizes, and the version I would own.

Pura Utz

Anna Waller Andrés from Denmark and Bernabela Sapalú from Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, founded Pura Utz together, and the brand says it started in Bernabela's family home in 2018. The name means pure quality, pure good, and one beaded pouch takes two women three working days and 24,400 glass beads. This edit gathers the jewelry, clutches and pouches that come out of that workshop.

Emm Kuo Bags: Clutches and Handbags by a Parsons Trained Designer

Emm Kuo is the handbag and accessories label of Emmaline Kuo Ranzman, a Parsons trained designer who grew up between Taipei, Hawaii, New York and Hong Kong before launching her own line in New York after working for Catherine Malandrino and Stephen Burrows. The specific thing that makes it hers is the global material sourcing, with evening bags handmade in studios in the Philippines under sustainability practices like natural dyeing and water conservation.

Merlette

Marina Cortbawi, an Australian who had spent years running international sales for Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera, founded Merlette in New York in 2016 without any formal design training. She built the label around a gap she saw from the inside of those two houses, women who had evening wear covered but wanted seasonless, lightweight everyday clothes that traveled well.

Lié Studio: Copenhagen Jewelry and Bags From Twin Sisters

Lié Studio was founded in Copenhagen in November 2021 by twin sisters Amalie and Cecilie Moosgaard, former runway models who had walked for Gucci, Valentino and Prada before building their own label with business partners at Brand Institute. The specific thing that makes the brand what it is: a small set of core minimalist gold and silver jewelry pieces, designed by two people who by their own account were not natural jewelry buyers before they started making it themselves.

JW Anderson

Jonathan Anderson, a Northern Irish designer who trained at London College of Fashion and worked as a visual merchandiser at Prada, founded JW Anderson in London in 2008. The label made its name on a deliberate blur between menswear and womenswear silhouettes, an idea Anderson later called a shared wardrobe, and it built a cult following well before he was named creative director of Loewe in 2013.

Janessa Leone

Janessa Leone launched her eponymous hat line in Los Angeles in 2013, funded with personal savings from years of nannying while she considered law school. The origin story is oddly literal: on a trip to Paris she bought a vintage men's hat, opened the sweatband, and found the milliner's surname stitched inside, the same as her own.

Khaite Shoes, Bags and Accessories: Leather Pumps and Sandals

Catherine Holstein launched Khaite in New York in 2016 with backing from Adam Pritzker's Assembled Brands, after a first eponymous label she started as a Parsons student closed in the 2008 financial crisis and a five-year run designing for Gap, Vera Wang and The Elder Statesman taught her the parts of the business she'd missed the first time. The label opened on denim and cashmere knitwear before adding runway shows in 2019 and an in-house bags and footwear line the same season, and Holstein still designs under a name modeled on the Greek word for long, flowing hair.

The Boxy Bag Trend: Structured Totes, Buckets and Gold Clasps

This edit gathers structured trapeze totes, bucket bags, gold-clasp shoulder bags, box bags and mini totes with clean, boxy lines. I focus on useful proportions, sturdy details and easy ways to wear each shape this fall.