I don’t know about you, but there’s no better weekend activity I enjoy more than people-watching for hours on end. While some may argue that people-watching is not an actual activity, to me, it’s a sport.
Give me a warm oat milk latte and the perfect table at a busy café on a city street corner, and I can sit long enough that it becomes appropriate to switch from espresso to wine.
While I love people-watching because I enjoy the romanticization of it all, I like to make up stories and imagine what strangers’ lives are like—it must be the writer in me. What I love most about people watching is the endless fashion inspiration it provides.
Bags in the Wild: A Love Letter to Real Style
A city street is full of fabulous outfits, unconventional pairings, and lots of bags! It’s this IRL bag spotting that I love the most, and it’s what inspired us to start our Bags In the Wild series back in 2021.
What I love most about seeing bags out and about and used in the wild is seeing the real ways people wear them—not overly styled, not worn with a head-to-toe branded look, raw, honest, and real. I also love bag spotting in different cities.
It’s interesting to note which brands or bags are more ubiquitous in certain places, which brings me to the current topic at hand—the bag I’ve been spotting time and time again during my first month in Paris: the Celine Classique Triomphe Bag, specifically in black.
The Timeless Appeal of the Celine Triomphe
While once or twice in a week could be deemed a coincidence, I immediately started to notice the ubiquity of them, taking notice of how many times I’ve spotted a bold, gold Triomphe logo since I arrived in Paris a month ago. Hint—it’s a daily occurrence.
Maybe I’m paying extra attention to it now, but Megs even pointed out how many Celine bags I captured in the outtakes for our bag coverage of Miu Miu’s Art Basel event. I mused that she was right! I had even stopped recording the Triomphe, so we didn’t have doubles.
The Celine Classique Triomphe Bag has been a favorite of mine for a long time, and there is something validating about seeing it worn on so many stylish Parisians near my flat in the 6th arrondissement and throughout the city.
It’s chic, trendy, and classic yet modern—quintessentially Parisian. Très chic!
The Louvre is misspelled in the subtitles of this article.
On my last visit to Paris I bought the Saint Laurent smoking jacket. I put off buying it for years because the arms were so tight and it just wasn’t comfortable. For the price I couldn’t see buying a jacket that didn’t fit well. And then I happened to wander through the men’s department at Printemps and thought why not, let’s see if that makes a difference. And it was all the difference and I bought it on the spot! For reference, I am a woman who wears a small in most of my tops and sweaters, and a medium in any blazer that I might buy. (I’m 5’8”, not heavy, but I’m not rail thin either at age 67) And one of my favorite styling looks is this blazer over cuffed up jeans with a heel and my Celine Triomphe black belt with gold buckle belted over the blazer. My point being is I love that metal logo in gold. And I love all things French and I love marrying the two together!
It is a beautiful bag, but I prefer the classic box
The logo thingy just puts me right off.
Me too. That logo has always creeped me out
This bag has so many dupes (e.g Tory Burch Eleanor shoulder bag, Givenchy 4g bag etc ) and itself is even a dupe of the box bag. I rather use the money for a more classic and timeless bag.
Thanks Kaitlin!! I always enjoy your pieces and how lovely to be in Paris. This is a beautiful bag. After Murakami madness, I am looking for some dressier pieces. Thanks for spotlighting this one.