The IT Bags That Won’t Break The Bank

Paying for an It bag used to mean plundering your deposit savings account or hawking the rest of your wardrobe on eBay. Not anymore. The crop of handbag brands currently gaining cult status on Instagram have prices that sit in that sweet spot roughly between £250 and £500. They’re certainly not cheap, but they also shouldn’t require a hasty remortgage.

The It bag that won’t break the bank was the first frontier in what fashion insiders are calling the ‘mid-market’. is means labels that tick the affordable luxury box – the emphasis being on ‘affordable’. And now it’s a market that’s booming. So what labels should you look to?

The Duchess of Cambridge is a repeat carrier of Manu Atelier’s suede Micro Bold (£430), while her sister-in-law Meghan favours DeMellier’s Mini Venice (£295). Meanwhile, Chylak, the Polish label that counts Edie Campbell, Alexa Chung and Felicity Jones in its fan club, can’t keep its bags in stock. Its founder Zofia Chylak says she pinpointed the mid-market when she launched in 2014: ‘There were very expensive high-fashion brands, then nothing and then high-street brands.’ Her target audience? ‘Women who are looking for something different, something in-between, something more unique, something timeless that can update their wardrobe.’

It’s a winning formula. Net-A-Porter’s global buying director Elizabeth von der Goltz cites key mid-market brands as Cult Gaia, Staud, Danse Lente and Yuze – all of which are among the top five best performing brands for contemporary bags, with prices from £95 to £495. In fact, this category – benchmarked by a cost that generally sits between £50 and £500 and doesn’t exceed £1,000 – has seen 70% growth since last season. ‘We don’t see this appetite waning,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Chylak is one of our most successful brands of the season.’

Sadly though, a handbag doesn’t have to be christened ‘Birkin’ or ‘Kelly’ to command the patience of a saint from its would-be customer. When the Duchess of Sussex slung Strathberry’s £425 East/West Mini bag around her Burberry coat for an Edinburgh visit soon after her engagement announcement, it sold out within minutes. Such is the success of Chylak, too, that its latest collection of cocoa-coloured mock-croc saddles and faux-python belt bags is wait list-only. (Though quick movers should note that Net-A-Porter has 10 delicious styles, with prices starting at £185.)

Perhaps the reason is that, while none of these bags require an emergency overdraft extension, you’re not compromising on quality. Take the Costa Rican label Montunas, which has buckets for £325, sweet resin box bags for £295, as an example. The brainchild of sisters Elena and Amanda Hawila and their mother Elke Ruge, the trio set out to change the perception that luxury bags have to cost the price of a honeymoon in, well, Costa Rica. Elena calls the skyrocketing prices of some designer bags over the last decade ‘jaw-dropping’: ‘A lot of women who traditionally bought luxury handbags out of appreciation for craftsmanship and design are being priced out.’ Montunas’ leather is sourced in Europe, and all their leather bags are manufactured in Spain and Italy. ‘You don’t need to spend a small fortune to purchase a great quality bag,’ Amanda insists.

It’s also nice to see how some mid-market bag brands are mindful about using their profits for good and trying to support the communities they work in. DeMellier, the London-based brand whose bags are made in Ubrique in southern Spain, has funded 50,000 vaccinations and medical treatments for orphans in need through its A Bag A Life initiative in collaboration with international charity SOS Children’s Villages. Meanwhile, Zofia Chylak manufactures in her home city of Warsaw to contribute to the Polish economy. ‘Poland had a tough history and has never really existed on the fashion map. It’s time to change that,’ she says. ‘Made in Poland’ is embossed on the front of all bags to hammer the message home.

Another key element of the mid-market bag’s success is that you don’t have to settle for something the size of a postage stamp for your budget. Staud’s Shirley shopper could easily accommodate an iPad, a hardback and an un-Kondoed make-up bag. Danse Lente’s dreamy selection does require a slightly less kitchen sink approach to contents, but the gingery Josh and super-sunny Adele are worth the prune. Of course, there’s one obvious danger. With so much gorgeousness out there, you might end up buying four instead of one...