Fashion
20 Affordable Bags To Gift (Or Ask For)
Bella Hadid’s favorite Coachtopia bag is in the mix.
A bag as a gift is ultimately as useful as the size and style you’re giving. Is your loved one asking for a micro-mini top-handle bag to keep in line with trends, or are they looking for a new everyday schlepper in an inoffensive color? Either way, you shouldn’t have to receive a flag from your credit card company when purchasing a handbag anyone would be delighted to receive. The market is positively rife with options from both indie brands you’ve never heard of and brands you may associate with your grandma’s purse collection. Everyone’s got the same idea for holiday 2024, though, with brown suede dominating both curated Instagram feeds and shopping pages alike. There’s also the requisite hot-red bags for wearing against your all-black December uniform and some animal-print pieces sure to become a neutral within a few seasons.
Below, we’ve rounded up our 20 favorite handbags, clutches, and one paper-bag-esque shoulder bag that are all under $1,000 while still delivering on quality and proximity to it-girl-ness. Our personal favorites include a sea-foam-green Rabanne purse, Bella Hadid’s exact checkerboard bag, and a pleasingly odd-shaped tote made out of cactus leather.
Keep the pop of red trend alive in shiny patent style.
Brown suede has been everywhere, but has it been $70, ludicrously capacious, and in the shade “chocolate cake brown”? I don’t think so.
A geometry lesson in the shape of an under-$100 handbag.
Rosalía’s favorite jeweler also makes cheeky little handbags, ideal for popping your lippie into.
The name says it all — this confection of a bag is almost cute enough to eat.
When in doubt, keep it classic and in the Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy vibe.
My personal favorite and one that is not for the paparazzi-avoidant celebs. If red’s too much, the black and brown options are equally as alluring.
Bella’s preferred carry-all is made from scraps of other Coach bags we love, like the Brooklyn.
A cheeky meow of a purse.
This cactus-leather tote comes in more colors and sizes for ultimate personality-gift matching.
If Yayoi Kusama was a bag, it would surely be this bauble top-handle situation.
A very French bag from the Parisian version of Anthropologie.
The better to poke your enemies’ eyes out with. (We kid.)
The texture on this mini little animal-effect bag is worthy of its own ASMR video.
For the girl who thinks a “chill night” starts at Little Sister.
I know what you’re thinking: an orange bag? In less qualified hands, this color would be too loud, but Longchamp makes it work.
A unique enough suede tote to stand out from the on-trend horde of neutral-wearing influencers.
A trash-bag style bag that also seems like a scarf when worn on the shoulder.
When all you need is a lipstick and a dream, why get anything bigger?
Another sensory experience in a handbag, this time in riveting pale green.
