As the uptight Mary Louise Wright in HBO’s Big Little Lies, Meryl Streep toted one in a severe black, as did Renée Zellweger’s heavily pregnant Bridget Jones in Bridget Jones’s Baby. Rihanna and JLo both had theirs in summery denim and exotic ostrich, while Kate Moss was papped with a different color each time, chicly nestled in the crook of the arm and artfully paired with low-slung jeans and Uggs.
Even today, the resale market offers no dearth of the design. Scrolling through the bottomless bowels of eBay, a grungy version illuminates the screen, its swathes of silver zips and chains glinting under artificial lighting. Further down is another in siren-red, with flaring gussets decreeing it to its new era under Mr. Johnny Coca.
But eventually, what captured my attention was the classic oak; its slightly darkened handles, well-worn postman’s lock, and just the right amount of slouch harking back to a life well-lived. It is, after all, the OG, and that can’t be beat!
As fashion people, it’s often the case that we like to take a certain (if somewhat misplaced) pride in the unconventional in our attempts to supposedly “stand out” from the crowd. Everything, in fact, that the Mulberry Bayswater, now in its twenty-first year of existence, isn’t.
So, why is it that I bring it up yet again?
From West London to the World
Among the Mulberry ladies we’ve all come to know on first-name terms – the Alexa, the Lily, the Mabel, the Iris – the Bayswater stands tall as the biggest, and by far, the most popular, exception, easily the brand’s bestselling bag.
Christened after the West London neighborhood characterized by Georgian houses and lush foliage, the Bays draws inspiration from creator Nicolas Knightly’s muse, Princess Anne, encapsulating the essence of Britishness in a purse.
And in true fashion form, when everybody else was gravitating towards somewhat questionably tacky things (it’s 2003 we speak of, after all), the Bayswater became the standout accessory, gracing runways and tabloids alike, perched atop the arms of Noughties’ it-girls Alexa Chung, Sienna Miller, Blake Lively, and Kate Moss herself, and spawning lengthy waitlists, like its spiritual cousin, the Hermès Birkin.
In 2016, the Bayswater was ushered into modern sensibilities by then-creative director Johnny Coca, with gusseted, zipped, backpack-ed, and even shrunken-down versions reimagined for fashion miniaturists – the original a staple, of course.
In Praise of the Bays
In celebration of the Bayswater’s 20th anniversary, Harper’s Bazaar writes, “The Mulberry Bayswater, the mother of all ‘It’ bags, is 20 years old. That makes it Gen-Z.”
And like all things twenty-odd years old, the trusty tote has returned to the fashion scene as a Gen-Z favorite, a true icon of the indie sleaze trend, and the perfect ludicrously capacious bag to wield on TikTok.
But even as a specimen of the generation who’s not on TikTok, the Gossip Girl essential has me enraptured. Within our culture of visual overabundance, the Bayswater – especially vintage ones, in all their battered, split-piped, and patinated glory – is a uniform of cool, much like a beat-up Birkin.
As Jo Elvin, former editor of Glamour, proudly quips, “In a time before Instagram, the Bayswater was the validating ‘blue tick’ of its day. If my tan Bayswater could talk, she’d tell you tales of being felt up by complete strangers in the street. ‘Oh, my god, you have a Bayswater! I’m on a waiting list! Can I . . . touch it?’”
But it’s not just buyers who are in on the frenzy.
The house itself reportedly uses the Bays as the gold standard of craftsmanship, where artisans must first acquire the skills requisite in making the style, and its enduring demand necessitates that a full production line at Mulberry’s Somerset factories be allocated to it at all times!
But Is It Really a Classic?
Of course, the days when the Bayswater was priced at the sensible yet unassuming £495 are long gone, the latest prices on the Mulberry site ringing in at £1,395. And that’s ostensibly the newest sweet spot for it-bag price points, given how most contemporary labels in today’s retail landscape have moved upscale.
But through all of this, the Bays has managed to remain a Mulberry bestseller. Alarmingly, perhaps, the brand’s only bestseller.
Fashion folklore attributes much of its pre-social media popularity to early-influencer marketing. As Elvin goes on to joke, “Their PR was practically hanging out of the fourth-floor window of their Bond Street HQ, hurling free handbags at celebrities and the fashion press.”
With every one of its social-savvy competitors vying for the prize now, however, the brand has begun to place even more emphasis on the Bayswater’s success.
With reprised colorways (a total of 19 are now available for sale), new maxi, mini and micro silhouettes, and the introduction of Mulberry Exchange, an in-store and digital pre-loved edit for authenticated and restored Mulberry bags.
And all this only goes to underscore the decline of novelty in the luxury space: for Mulberry now, Balenciaga before that with the City bag, and many more.
Certainly, the Bayswater, by most luxury price and quality standards, is still a bang for the buck. But what happens when the brand’s only bestseller no longer sells? It’s not an entirely unlikely proposition given how so many Bayswaters (and even the newly revived Alexa) command resale prices under the $500 or even $200 mark.
At the end of the day, as we await the day when fashion becomes fun again, the current market for Bayswaters remains a utopia for pre-loved shoppers such as myself. After all, our lunch pails, spare shoes for the subway, and back-to-work books must go somewhere. Preferably with a side pocket for the kitchen sink, too.
Sajid is a pre-loved shopper! <3 #relatable This whole post is making me want to go out and get a bright red Bayswater.
I got my first Mulberry (Alexa) in 2012. It was my “I’m at Harrods with disposable income for the first time” purchase. As a recently graduated millennial working across too many time zones I wanted to demonstrate that I was a sophisticated world-traveler, so I opted for the Alexa over the PS1 and over the Cambridge satchel—hell no I wasn’t going back to school. I wanted my bag to scream to all my friends in the Northeast, “look at how put together and GLOBAL I am, I go to LONDON for work.”
I hated that bag though. It was hard to get into, the clasp was finicky, the buckled straps bruised my knuckles when I opened my bag too quickly, plus, it didn’t hold that much. I always had to bring my laptop and gym clothes in a separate Longchamp, which simultaneously added to my “I’m such a FANCY world TRAVELER” vibe but with two bulging bags and no upper body strength to speak of, also detracted from me looking anything “put together”.
Flash forward some 10+ years later and hopefully much less of an incorrigible aspirant, I think what I appreciate most about Mulberry—especially its Bayswater—is that it’s classic without being stodgy, down-to-earth without being defensive, and announces itself without trying to steal the show (either as “QUIET LUXURY!!!” or LOUD LUXURY!!! which both scream depending on how sensitive you are to signals). It is a bag that blends in and stands out at the same time. I have no idea how they achieve this balance—maybe their brand design team IS their product design team and vice versa. The only other (bag-focused) brand which feels just as integrated to me was Celine under Phoebe Philo. The bags have the cohesion and consistency of a founder-owned/operated brand for a fraction of the price of the bigger labels, and that is an impressive accomplishment.
Mulberry straddles this really interesting place in the midpack of brands—neither luxury nor a cheap brand, it’s just… classic. It just sticks to what it is and doesn’t change. Sajid, as you put it, the quintissentially British feel (in all the good ways, less the bad ways). While Rebecca Minkoff and Foley&Corinna rode the trend wave up then all the way down, Kate Spade and Michael Kors hollowed out their supply chains and went all mass mall, and Coach pivoted to nostalgic collaborations and NBA-level celebrity sponsorships just in time, Mulberry just kept doing the thing it did. Looking at this brand now in my mid-30s, I’ve come to appreciate how timeless it is—and how hard it is to actually, actively stay timeless.
I found a beautiful pre loved bright red Bayswater and Fell in love immediately! Cant wait to wear it all year long! I bought a dark brown one (also pre loved) just recently and i love wearing it!!! And also amazing how many things fit in that bag! Thinking about selling my LV Neverfull now.
Yes to the Bays! I have two, one in chocolate and one in black NVT leather and also two smaller ones (the Ledbury). My oldest one is 14 years old and only looks better with age. I’ve got about a dozen or so older style Mulberry bags from back in the day. You can’t go wrong with one of these, but I’d advise you to go for the original Darwin leather or its later incarnation NVT leather, preferably with the old style bronze or brass colored hardware. They will last and last and will only get better with use if you give them the occasional collonil spray to protect them from rain and dirt. I’m quite sad mr Coca abandoned the old style leathers and colors (Mulberry’s old style chocolate color cannot be beat) and basically turned a heritage brand into something that isn’t quite fashion but now has lost most of its luster for me. So I’ll stick to preloved 😁
Reading Sajid’s another well-written masterpiece suddenly reminds me of Mulberry x Target collab. Has it been that long?!