Fashion’s Favourite New It Bags Are Championing Understatement Above Anything Else

For the majority of the 2010s, if you’d asked me what I wanted from a handbag, the answer – although I wouldn’t have admitted this of course – would have been that it needed to be noticeable. Sure, the specifics and brands would have varied from season to season, but the common thread was that the bag should be recognisable from a glance. Forget its practical purpose, the main job of a bag was to semaphore one’s style, status and spending power to the world. Let’s put it down to a potent mix of insecurity and Instagram.

But, now, there is a kickback happening. If the last decade was dominated by clickbait fashion, now there is a move towards quieter pieces that are devoid of flashy logos and telling design details (see: Khaite, Chylak, Little Liffner and the ultra-minimal versions of Loewe’s new Postal bag). Made to last not a season, but a lifetime, this new breed of bags whisper style rather than shout fashion. Welcome to the era of the anti-it bag.

Leading the charge is Danielle Corona, the woman behind Hunting Season. ‘It doesn’t feel like something that’s trying too hard,’ she says of the collection of ‘modern heirlooms’, which is made in her native Colombia (woven styles, for instance, are created by female artisans in southern Colombia, using techniques passed down through generations).

You know the woman who rocks up somewhere wearing jeans and a sweater but, thanks to the specific cut of the jeans and the very particular shade of the knit, manages to make it look like the only thing you ever want to wear again? Hunting Season bags are the accessory equivalent of that. Classics reimagined through a contemporary lens, the bags are created with an impeccable eye for design and an authentic appreciation of craftsmanship. Highlights include the signature Trunk bag, a rounded design that calls to mind a ridiculously sophisticated lunchbox, slim Envelope clutches, sumptuous evening pouches, and supremely sleek top handle handbags that would bring a shot of Kennedy/Radziwill elegance to even the scruffiest among us.

The Hunting Season woman is, says Danielle, ‘someone who appreciates luxury but values discretion. She walks into a room and isn’t desperate for attention, but always gets noticed’. Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Kaia Gerber are all fans. Katie Holmes, the end-of-decade’s plot-twist style icon, thanks to her adoption of an luxuriously anonymous pieces that are ridiculously covetable, has also been spotted wearing the leopard print Gigi trunk recently.

The fashion world might only be catching on now, but Danielle – a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist – founded Hunting Season back in 2006. When she looks at pictures of herself from 10 years ago, she’ll likely be wearing the same clothes as now; the bags chime with her own personal style sensibility. Certainly the confident, considered designs have not just cross-seasonal but cross-generation appeal, which makes them a savvy, sustainable investment. ‘When I buy things I buy them to work around my life,’ explains Danielle. ‘It doesn’t feel trendy, but does feel relevant’.

Relevant is the key word here. Sure, Hunting Season and their impeccable ilk don’t bombard you with their glaring it-ness, but that only serves to make them more desirable. If bags are the temperature gauge of the sartorial climate, then they would suggest that we’re due a revival of personal style, and a move away from theatrical trends and flashy consumption. ‘The bags are meant to compliment the woman,’ says Danielle. ‘Not steal the show’. How refreshing.

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