Don't put me in a box!

This nostalgic shape is set to become the next "It" bag for Fall.

Mar 27, 2025

I am, and have always been, a bag lady. I love them: I love collecting them, I love showing them to my cat, Stevie Nicks, so she knows her inheritance (she’s plotting my disappearance as we speak); and I love stuffing them to the brim with a multitude of my belongings (I’m ready for the apocalypse at all times). For the past few seasons, the east-west shape has been ubiquitous (Alaïa Le Teckel, Khaite Simona, The Row Idaho, and reissue of the Hermès JPG shoulder Birkin come to mind as standouts). But based on a few new releases (including the Celine Augustine, a delicious mini-clasp style reminiscent of the Phoebe Philo era) and runway trends I observed for Fall 2025, I suspect the box shape and clasp styles will soon steal the spotlight. And this tickles my absolute fancy.

Box bags, clasp bags, frame bags, train cases, trunk bags, and vanity bags–each different in appearance but very similar in their nostalgic appeal–have long been my favorite “genre” of handbag, and I’ve acquired quite the (mostly vintage) collection over the years. So imagine my utter delight when I saw structural, vintage-inspired leather box bags parade down the runways at Victoria Beckham and Hermès this season in Paris (the former of which reminded me of the vanity bag that Meghan Markle made viral when she wore it to Christmas at Sandringham in 2018).

Box bags on the runway at Victoria Beckham (L) and Hermès (R) AW25 shows in Paris

Further, upon touching and feeling one of the designs at the Hermès FW25 re-see last week in New York, I fell head over heels. And how, God help me, could I not? Its structure, buttery leather, and shiny “H” buckle felt like such an affectionate nod to the 1940s and 1950s, a time period I didn’t get to experience firsthand, but one whose remnants I deeply treasure. It was flat and almost like a miniature briefcase, which also gives it a strong, androgynous feel.

As I wrote last April in a post on here: There is something so nostalgic, so elegant, and so ladylike about them [box and clasp bags]. They remind me of a night at the opera in the 1940s, a rainy day in Paris in the 1950s, or riding in the backseat of a taxi on a Saturday night in 1964 while searching for a tin of breath mints hidden beneath a pair of leather gloves and a bullet of fire engine-red lipstick.

A box bag on the runway at Hermès and in my hands at the re-see

And not to get all deep about a handbag (although that is my God-given right!), I do find something profoundly empowering about carrying a box bag. I love a big, slouchy, amorphous bag just as much, but a box shape has a certain sense of pride. It doesn’t simply squeeze through and mold flexibly to its environment–it demands, and takes up, space. And as a woman, I do find that to be profoundly metaphorical.

Anyways, as much as I would consider selling my plasma for that Hermès bag, I (as you may know) have a knack for pre-loved accessories and the stories they tell (as well as a passion for being able to pay my rent). So with that in mind, here are some beauties I have on my wishlist, in my closet, and on my Ebay watch tab for your consideration.

Before there was Babygirl, there was Belle de jour — *Belle de Jour*, 1967.

Pre-Loved/Vintage Box and Clasp Bags

Ready-to-Love Box and Clasp Bags

XX,

Don't put me in a box!

This nostalgic shape is set to become the next "It" bag for Fall.

Pre-Loved/Vintage Box and Clasp Bags

Ready-to-Love Box and Clasp Bags

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