Patches have had kind of a slow burn when it comes to their appearance on handbags. Raf Simons showed interest in them from the beginning of his now-ended tenure at Dior three years ago, but other brands were slow to pick up on the look. Then, Anya Hindmarch came out with her super-popular leather stickers, which allowed shoppers to add customized patch-looking embellishments to any bag in their collections. Then patches showed up on Valentino and Gucci bags, and finally, the look seems to be a full-blown trend.
Resort and spring bags offer the largest distribution of patches so far, and that includes a fairly flexible idea of what a “patch” might be. With some particularly high-end brands, the look is achieved through direct embroidery or beading on a bag, which is a more luxurious approach to patches that manages to exclude an actual patch entirely. For more accessibly priced bags, an actual patch is used to create the look of a patch. Imagine that.
Take a look at some of the patch-adorned bags we found below.