As any true purse lover knows, one of the most exhilarating moments you may have is unexpectedly spotting a bag you admire in the wild. Depending on your geographical location, it’s fair to say that this happens to some of us much more often than others. It may seem like a small detail to many, but as handbag obsessed as I am, I always take great delight in traveling to fashion meccas such as New York City, Paris, or Singapore to get a glimpse of all the fabulous handbag eye candy. I’m bound to spot dozens of bags when venturing through those cities, whereas when I am in my hometown I see far less.
Don’t get me wrong, I do see handbags in the wild living in a District of Columbia suburb, but it’s often the usual suspects (ie: many, many Louis Vuitton Neverfulls). I live about 45 minutes outside of the city center, and like most cities, the closer to downtown I am, the more handbags I am likely to spot. My favorite place for bag gazing has to be the Tyson’s Galleria in McLean, VA (about 15 minutes outside of DC). Bustling with fashion lovers and high end boutiques such as Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Celine, Bottega Veneta, LV, Saint Laurent, and more, I am always lucky and catch my best bag sightings there. It’s by far the best local spot I’ve found for bag watching, and I’m lucky to have a place where I can spot so many fabulous bags. My latest trip to the Galleria resulted in a sighting of a Celine Luggage Tote, a Dior Book Tote, and a Bottega Veneta Cassette bag, all of which I spotted in wonder and admiration.
Before moving back to my hometown in DC’s suburbs, I spent 3 years living in Boston and 2 years living in Cork City, Ireland. In my personal experience, Boston wasn’t the ideal place for spotting fashion’s latest trends or classics, and my handbag sightings in the wild were fewer and far between. However, Beacon Hill and Newbury Street were my go-tos for fashion and purse gazing, I could almost always conjure a Chanel or Hermès sighting if I perused the areas long enough.
Living in Cork City, it was very rare for me to spot designer handbags. In order to shop the premier designer boutiques, one must travel to Dublin, about 2.5 hours north of Cork. I purchased my first big ticket item during my time living in Ireland, and my husband and I made the journey to the LV shop in Dublin so that I could purchase my Neverfull. It’s interesting that my Neverfull felt like the rarest bag in all the land to me at the time, and now I can’t leave my home without seeing one or two in the wild.
These have been my personal observations in the cities that I have been lucky enough to call home or to take vacations to. After reflecting on this, I’ve realized that how popular a handbag is in my neighborhood has the ability to change my handbag tastes. I mentioned that my Neverfull felt like such a rare treasure to me when I first purchased it living abroad, but I must admit that seeing it on every person I pass has made it lose a little bit of it’s sparkle for me. Because of this lesson with my LV Neverfull, I’m learning to purchase handbags that are a bit more obscure, or go for vintage bags such as my Marc Jacobs Stam so that I’m carrying a bag less ubiquitous.
Do you get to spot handbags in the wild where you live? Has it changed your shopping habits at all? If you are missing handbag peeping in your hometown, you can always watch these shows to get your fill. I would love to hear abut your personal experiences with bag gazing in your neighborhood!
I’m surprise to see so much Mulberry in The Netherlands.
I live in New Hampshire. In my town – no I think I’ve seen 1-2 really high end bags. One was in Nashua where I saw a Hermès Birkin bag at a panera. My jaw dropped. It was such a pretty taupe color. The second time as a Chanel 2.55 in Bedford ( Bedford is a really upper class kind of town) my eyes nearly bugged out of my head and I think I scared the girl who owned it by my shock. Other than that I see a ton of Coach and Donney bags but not a lot spectacular bags. I also saw a mulberry bayswater bag at a Shaw’s. I was carrying my Baywater as well so we both got a thrill at seeing someone else with one.
Dallas, so yes. Very much so. You would think it was mandatory that every citizen have a neverfull as a condition of residency….
lol this comment made me smile 🙂
I started seeing a lot of Goyard STL PM around Chicago (where I live) in the mid 2010’s, which would probably be around the time that a Goyard boutique opened at the local Neiman Marcus. At first carried by older ladies shopping at Barney’s (RIP), then by younger women who definitely looked like they were account managers in PR or advertising. Before that, I’d see them at O’Hare airport, usually on my regular flights back to New York City (to visit my parents in Queens – I am not fancy!).
Having lived there for 6 years, I agree with your observation on Boston sightings. I’ve only ever seen a couple of YSL and Goyard bags – it was mostly LV Neverfull and Speedy bags.
Glad to know I wasn’t alone in that observation! I miss Boston though, such a great city 🙂
Came here to write exactly what you said! I grew up in Brookline and the only time I ever see Chanel or Hermes in Boston is on a tourist 99% of the time (can’t even recall ever seeing Chloe or BV, among others). Boston babes and their sisters in the suburbs appear to prefer the tried and true staples (your comment got me thinking and I realized that nearly every woman I went to high school with who has a luxury purse has a LV Neverfull lol).
After living in New York and LA for the last 12 years, I recently moved back to the area and feel so weird with the purse collection I’ve amassed because it just doesn’t seem to be a thing here. I guess I got so used to being in an echochamber that I forgot that most people don’t care about purses! I will add that I’ve noticed that people here don’t seem to care about luxury anything–the cars you see on the road are fairly modest, especially compared to what you see in LA. You can drive through a neighborhood of $1M+ houses and see a lot of mid-level price range cars.
Totally agree with your comment. Love Brookline–I was living in Davis Sq during my years in Boston and never saw any bags in that neighborhood besides my own.
I live in Silicon Valley and see designer handbags all the time. It’s a variety of brands — I’d say the bags I see the most are LV Neverfulls and Pochette Metis, but they are not the majority. There really is a big variety. There is a shopping center near my house where I see just about every luxury brand when I am there though I do also so a lot of people who carry non-designer bags to make a point.
Yep – I live in Orange County so designer handbags are everywhere you look. Plenty of Chanel, Gucci, LV, etc., but surprisingly little Hermes… even when I’m walking around Newport Beach.
Every. Day.
I live in Houston in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods. I’m not wealthy, but the neighborhood has one of the best public high schools in the district. You name it, I’ve seen it. Birkins (there’s an Hermès boutique). Louis Vuitton. Chanel. Gucci. Prada. Goyard. The list goes on. Mostly non-trendy, non-“it” bags. Funny enough, I’ve yet to see a Kelly. I do, however, see A LOT of Evelyns.
This is the best place to people watch.
Yes…living in LA, they are rampant. I do like the variety. I’ve been inspired by someone who was rocking a Celine Nano Belt bag at the nail salon one day and that started a quest for the perfect Celine Nano Belt 🙂 I also see some celebrity sightings at same nail salon in Beverly Hills…e.g. Emmy Rossum and her Chanel Mini Flap was another “in the wild” inspiration. And I have had random people approach me to compliment or ask about my handbag, so that’s always fun…it’s like a real life museum…
I live in Salt Lake City so designer bag sightings are on the rare side. I know there are others like myself here who own designer things and love fashion but it is certainly not the norm. Yes, I like it when I spot a kindred spirit out and about in SLC. *I know what some of you are thinking and despite popular belief there are a lot of us non Mormons here, ha! I do love it when traveling and I see so many who appreciate bags/fashion walking the streets. This is a fun post.
I am also from SLC. Totally agree with your comment.
It’s been on-and-off in the different places I’ve lived in the past decade… It’s odd, the cities where I’d see them, it’d be a LOT, like all the time. Some cities also have picked a brand or two and stick to it, so it’s less luxury/cost-related and more brand-related, don’t ask me why. Like the Oslo Hermes boutique is busy enough, but almost all I saw in Oslo were Louis Vuitton or Michael Kors. But from LV it would be some very expensive pieces as well as the lowest entry-level ones, so I didn’t get the vibe of just being cost related.
Well, I live in Dhaka and here, you definitely get to see a lot more variety than anyplace else. If you look at the most posh places, you’ll be likely to spot a number of LVs, Lady Dior, Gucci, Prada and sometimes even a stray Goyard. In lesser posh (but still posh) places, you’ll see a lot more Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Coach, Guess and maybe a Tory Burch. In places that aren’t posh at all, you might come across the wildest things: you might see a faux leather Target-esque tote with Gucci or Prada hot stamped on it, or Burberry’ s checkered diaper bags (which clearly don’t exist) and sometimes just the most amazing LV Neverfull and other replicas that you would have believed were authentic hadn’t it been for the people carrying them (no offence to them, but you can probably guess that a woman vending vegetables on the street doesn’t flaunt the real deal).
I live in Paris and luxury bags are the most common thing ever. Nowadays, I see a lot of Saint Laurent (especially Loulou/Niki/Sunset), a lot of Chanel and Celine (Belt, and sometimes a Luggage or a Big Bag), a few LV (mostly the Neverfull) and Goyard (obs the Saint Louis tote). From time to time, I spot a Birkin, but that’s rare !
Funny enough, not as much as I used to… I live in Montreal, and usually when you went downtown there would be quite a few sightings here and there, but in the last few years, not so much. If you did spot someone, it would typically be the boring LV or Chanel pieces that EVERYONE had, so nothing overly exciting. Now I want to preface this by saying I hope nobody takes offense or anything, but the girls I’ve seen in Montreal with always the best handbags and style in general, are Asian. They know what’s cool and how to effortlessly put a look together it seems. So do I, so we always got along great haha.
Hey Pinksky, I live in mtl too!
I totally agree, Asians have the best designer bags. Hands down. No question.
Maybe the reason why you don’t spot the designer bags is because most people go for unbranded, or muted designs. (Rosemont, Plateau, Griffintown, Hampstead)
But in Westmount, the Evelyn is owned by one person in every household.
In the metros, you’ll see all the fake monogram bags hahaha
And in the old port, you’ll find the real LV monogram bags
Hit and miss where I live; Seattle.
If I’m in the bougie neighborhoods, or hanging with fellow purse whores, I will spot some LV, Gucci, Celine(amongst ourselves) lol
Living in a smaller city outside Toronto the premier designer sightings are typically the Neverfull or speedy. It’s usually a handful of LV, lots of Kate Spade and Coach, the odd Marc Jacobs snapshot, and some Gucci Dionysus. There’s probably only been 4 or 5 times I saw a kindred sighting – a decade ago I spotted a Kelly and Lindy, and last week the most exciting thing I had spotted in a while was a Longchamp Neo Le Pliage.
Pre-COVID-19 (Oklahoma):
Pochette Metis and Goyard PM (white) at barre and zumba classes, respectively 🙂
Lots of Neverfulls, I did see a Kelly Cut at a fundraiser dinner once. Funny thing is, it wasn’t at the table with all the oil billionaires.
Currently:
Evelyn PM at ice cream parlor.
Celine Nano Luggage and LV Neo Noe.
LV Speedy at Whole Foods this morning 🙂
Live in downtownToronto, see lots of designer bags, Hermes, Chanel, Gucci, LV, some YSL, Goyard Totes doesn’t seem to have declined even during the Pandemic and we’re now in lockdown again,
In LA Goyard St Louis are everywhere, almost as many as Neverfulls. Tons of YSL, Gucci, Chanel.
I work in downtown DC and yes you see a lot of LV, but I also see a lot of Goyard and Gucci. I have a Chloe Marcie satchel and occasionally spot a twin. I saw the most beautiful cobalt Celine luggage tote on the subway once and I couldn’t stop staring.
I live in Oakland, CA and used to work in SF. It is interesting to see how bags have shifted as more luxury apartments have popped up in downtown Oakland.
Neverfulls have beeb pretty popular for a while, but they are being replaced by Goyard St. Louis. In days of old it was a rarity to see anything Hermes in either place, where I traveled. I would always denote an H sighting in the wild in Oakland. Typically at Whole Foods or one of the other fancy groceries.
In the past couple of years I have seen way more younger people with various Gucci, YSL, and Chanel WOCs in Oakland. And various mostly monogram LV. This would have been unheard of a decade ago – because visible displays of wealth were pretty rare. People were more practical, and even standard midrange bags like Coach, D&B, and MK weren’t super common – unless it was a vintage one on a hipster. SF is fairly similar, but you see more Chanel flaps on people of various ages. I haven’t seen a Celine bag in Oakland yet, but they are fairly popular in SF. Over east of me in Walnut Creek, there are more bag spotting as this has become with center of designer shopping east of SF, with a Neiman Marcus and a Nordstrom with mostly premier bags.
What you don’t get here are the fashion forward bags. Mostly the old stand bys, and things that work with more casual looks.
I live outside of DC as well, and I rarely see designer bags in my day to day wanderings. One of my barre instructors has a stunning Antigona, and I nearly stopped a woman in Wegman’s who had a Celine Belt Bag in her cart, but apart from that, it’s LV as far as the eye can see.
Tyson’s is the magical land where everyone pulls out their nicest bags, especially now with the endless months of staying at home. Dior, Chanel, Bottega, Gucci, YSL, even the occasional Hermes … it’s a fun game of spot the bag!
I live in Scottsdale and yes to seeing all of the bags. From Chanel, Hermes, Bottega, YSL. Most popular lately are Gucci and Hermes. But love having the Scottsdale Fashion Square as you can see it all there.
I live in Chapel Hill, NC and designer handbag sightings are rare. I’m pretty sure that in NC, a designer bag is unrecognizable unless it has LVs all over it.
Suburbs of Philly here – lots and lots of designer bags in the wild across all brands, particularly if you live off the Main Line like I do. It helps that the King of Prussia mall is nearby, which now is actually the largest mall in the US (sorry Mall of America) and the fact that we have 2 Chanels (1 at Neimans, 1 at Saks). I spent 10 years in Pittsburgh prior to moving here where everyone has LV everything as it’s one of the very few stand alone designer bag stores in town, so I really enjoy seeing the more posh style in this area. (And, apologies Pittsburgh, but the women here are much more fashion-forward, which is nice). I’ve spotted several birkins as well, but usually only when walking around the mall. It probably helps that we’re 1.5 hours from Manhattan.