Fringe is the Next Big Bag Trend for Everyone to Disagree About

It's a lot of look, we admit

After you’ve spent a while writing for an audience online, you learn to spot trouble when it’s on its way. A lot of trends lately have felt like that, from logo bags to fanny packs—it’s almost felt like designers were looking to rile people up. After all, that’s a tried-and-true way to get people to talk about you online, and that’s something luxury brands care about now.

The latest in this series of bag trends is fringe, which I wasn’t sure would make it to full-fledged trend status. It appears to be trending up for fall, though, so now it’s time we talk about it, and I suspect we’ll get some strong feelings either way.

Importantly (at least to me), the trend seems to mostly split into two categories: leather fringe and thin, glossy woven or thread fringe. I hate the former, love the latter—the leather I’ve seen is mostly integrated into the bags in kind of awkward ways, while the silky, long textile fringe feels vintage and glamorous, made to be petted casually after one too many glasses of champagne at a fancy party. With all the tassel-heavy statement earrings that have become popular in the past few years, it doesn’t surprise me to see this kind of fringe migrate to other accessories, but the leather is still a bit of a mystery to me personally. Either way, check out plenty bags of both types below.