Introducing the Louis Vuitton W Bag

Actually, this is a bit of a re-introduction or, perhaps, a formal introduction. Many of you have already seen the new Louis Vuitton W Bag in the arms of Michelle Williams, who stars in the brand’s fall handbag ads, but now we have a close-up look at all five versions of the bag, which is one of Vuitton’s marquee new pieces for Fall 2013.

Monogram haters, take a seat – even though this bag doesn’t come in any entirely logo’d versions, you will find the iconic logo gracing the gussets of four out of five colorways, both in the traditional coated canvas and tonal leather with flocked motifs for a bit of added texture. The fifth version, alternately features overlaid flowers in a black-and-white check print. (At least I think they’re flowers; because of the check print, finding the edges of the forms in photos can be a little dizzying.)

I hold out hope for a future version of this bag without the monograms, but as it stands, the bag has grown on me a bit since I first encountered it. Although it plays on the ever-popular element of flared gussets a la Celine, Vuitton’s designers have done perhaps the best job of any major brand making the look their own, bringing the line of the gussets in well past their traditional borders at the edge of a bag’s front panel. I’m still not entirely convinced about the handle attachments, but they do mirror the slanted lines of the bag’s design quite well.

The bag comes in two sizes, PM and GM – the PM is 13 inches wide, while the GM reaches almost 16. The shape starts at $3,700 for a PM mixture of leather and canvas and tops out at $5,150 for a GM all-leather bag. You’ll be able to shop these bags this fall via Louis Vuitton.