I don’t envy the position that new handbag lines find themselves in. The accessories market is super competitive, in part because it’s super profitable and a great way to reach a wide range of consumers, but that also means that how a new line is positioned at its launch is critically important. The look and price not only need to be in sync with each other, but they should be attuned to what else is going on within the accessories industry.

I’ve been eyeing the Celine All Soft Shoulder Bag ever since Celine Spring 2013 popped up on the Internet (for Celine newbies, the brand calls its resort collection “spring” and its spring collection “summer”), and now that the line is set to launch in Celine boutiques on Thursday (along with the rest of spring), it seemed only fitting to take a closer look at what makes the bag so appealing.

When the reviews for the Proenza Schouler Resort 2013 collection started rolling in this past summer, I became agitated. Not because of what I saw, but because of what I didn’t – the reviews mentioned a bag known as the Proenza Schouler PS13 that had been shown at the brand’s press previews, but not a single outlet published a picture of it.

Not only do I love finding new handbag designers to share with you all, but also I found a designer whose bags are so lovely I am certain many of you will add them to your wishlist. I know I am. I am talking about Sophie Hulme, a British designer who graduated from Kingston University in 2007 and followed graduation by launching her ready to wear brand immediately.

All these years later, my all-time favorite DvF bag is still the Stephanie. I own two of these bags, they’re my go-to when it comes to traveling. I love that for this bag, the shape is crescent-like, which means it’s so roomy that it fits everything I need. Furthermore, every time I carry my Stephanie, people praise it. It should follow suit that DvF continues to pump up her handbag game; she’s churning out lust-worthy bags each season.

Narciso Rodriguez is a man whose clothes are known for their modern angles and respect for the natural contours of the body, so it only makes sense that his first handbags should have that same sensibility. Time and again, it’s proved difficult for American ready-to-wear designers to effectively channel their aesthetic visions into covetable handbags, but what I look at this bag, I see pure Narciso, particularly in the sharp black accents.

The perennial cool kids of Opening Ceremony have taken one more step into the accessories realm: just this week, they’ve launched their first in-house bag line, which feels like a long time coming. As you might expect, the bags ring up at a contemporary price point and they look like exactly the sort of thing that Opening Ceremony’s hipper-than-thou clientele wants to carry when their It Bags start to feel overexposed.

It’s rare that I come across a line of bags at Neiman Marcus that I don’t immediately recognize, but that’s what happened when I was browsing the retailer’s new fall arrivals online recently. The SW1 Podplaza Satchel, above, immediately caught my eye for its spare, confident design; it takes some nerve to design a bag that’s so aggressively minimal, because the eye doesn’t have anything by which to be conveniently distracted when evaluating the finished product.

Over the last few years, I have become a full-fledged Bottega Veneta girl. I started with their handbags and slowly began adding shoes, and before I knew it I was buying their clothing as well. This is a brand I know and love and hands-down can proclaim that if I could, I would wear and carry Bottega Veneta every single day.

With so much flash in the luxury accessories industry, it’s nice to come across a brand that goes in entirely the opposite direction. There’s something to be said for a simple, perfectly made leather bag that embraces subtlety, and that’s exactly what you’ll find from Mark Cross. The American brand dates back to the mid-1800s, and although it was shuttered in the late 90s, new leadership reopened the brand in 2010 as a heritage leather goods line.