Investing in a designer handbag is a big deal. As someone who basically only spends large sums of money on bags—sorry shoes, but the NYC streets are too rough for you—I know all too well that the financial and even mental impact of following through on a big bag purchase is significant. What does help, though, is conducting research ahead of time to decide which brand, style, color, and size is right for you and how you’re going to style the bag once it’s yours.
For me, the first step in the research process is always to go through photos of my options and see how they’ve been worn by the celeb set. After all, given their access to all the best fashion pieces on the market, they’re the ones who can provide the most and easiest to sort through outfit inspiration. Since the designer handbags on the market right now are so enticing (but actually, can designers chill?), I thought I’d go ahead and lay the groundwork for your next bag purchase by scouring every image of today’s chicest celebs and finding the luxury totes, clutches, and top handles that they can’t quit in 2023. Scroll down to see them all, from Katie Holmes and Rihanna to Hailey Bieber and Laura Harrier.
Bottega Veneta’s Andiamo bag made a big splash at the beginning of 2023 when it first launched, going especially viral on Euphoria actor Jacob Elordi, but it wasn’t until Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner started carrying them in various sizes all over New York, LA, and Paris that the surprisingly practical bag style really became ubiquitous.
Laura Harrier, being a Saint Laurent girl and all, has some of the chicest bags on the planet in her closet. But the one she’s been carrying nonstop since Cannes Film Festival is by far my favorite. The purse in question is the French brand’s Le 5 à 7 soft bag in black with gold hardware and it’s downright perfect for all of you who, like me, actually want their bags to fit stuff inside them.
The Row has put out a number of gorgeous handbags of late, but the one I see most often on the celeb set is the brand’s Half Moon shoulder bag. Simple yet sculptural, the ’90s-inspired bag has been spotted all across Hollywood, but most recently on Kendall Jenner at a FWRD party.
Every fashion girl’s favorite quiet-luxury ready-to-wear label out of Stockholm, Toteme, is quickly making a name for itself in the bag realm, starting with its T-Lock clutch-shoulder bag hybrid that’s become one of Katie Holmes’s regular carriers.
Rihanna almost exclusively carries vintage bags by the likes of Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci, so when she stepped out earlier this year at Carbone with A$AP Rocky carrying one of Miu Miu’s newest purses, the pocket bag, it wasn’t something the fashion crowd took lightly. And to make the bag even more enticing, it’s also been spotted on Sydney Sweeney, Emily Ratajkowski, Rita Ora, and Jenna Ortega.
As someone who was (1) born in 1995 and (2) obsessed with Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, you can imagine my delight when Miuccia Prada reissued the late New York City publicist’s favorite Prada bag, first released in 1995, a few years back. Since, the bag has been made available in a number of different sizes and colors and carried by all sorts of celebs, including Margot Robbie, who went with the mini, white version.
Honey, I shrunk Khaite’s beloved Lotus tote.
Hailey Bieber loves this easy Jacquemus shoulder bag and I can’t blame her. So do I.
Miu Miu’s latest bag launch was all over the streets of Milan during men’s fashion week.
If you’re heading on a beach vacation this summer, this is the one bag you should bring.
Sofia Richie Grainge is the Kelly bag’s number-one fan.
Prada’s new limited-edition Galleria bag is *everywhere* right now. Literally, it’s on every billboard in NYC.
I love how simple and understated this Gucci bag is.
No notes.
This bag has a fan in Jennifer Lawrence.
Maximilian Davis’s new bags for Ferragamo belong in an art exhibition more than a store but I digress.
A simple beauty.
Margot Robbie’s been wearing Chanel’s iconic flap bags all throughout her Barbie press tour.
