Fashion’s Shift Toward Softer Accessories Starts With This Bag Trend

Style Guide

May 13

I’ll always love a clean leather shoulder bag, but woven styles are the ones that keep making my simplest outfits feel more interesting lately.

Source Image: Getty Image

Between model castings, backstage fittings, and spending far too much time looking at street style photos, I’ve realized the girls with the simplest outfits almost always carry the most interesting bags.

Not louder. Not trendier. Just more textured.

Lately, that accessory has been the woven bag.

Source Image: models.com

And no, I don’t just mean the giant raffia basket bags that practically took over European summer vacations a few years ago. Somewhere between Bottega Veneta bringing intrecciato back into the spotlight and everyone suddenly dressing a little softer, woven bags quietly became one of the easiest ways to make minimalist outfits feel more personal.

Honestly, I think fashion just got tired of everything looking too perfect.

For a while, luxury accessories leaned incredibly polished. Smooth leather. Sharp edges. Structured top handles that looked beautiful sitting on a café table but could barely survive fitting your laptop, makeup bag, charger, and whatever else ends up floating around your tote by 4 p.m. Even the outfits surrounding them felt precise.

Now the mood feels different.

Source Image: Getty Image

The people carrying woven bags right now aren’t styling them in overly polished ways either. It’s oversized trenches, wrinkled button-ups, relaxed tailoring, vintage denim, airport looks, wired headphones, and bags that actually look lived in.

And the styling shift isn’t just happening in womenswear anymore.

The newer versions coming from brands like Loewe, The Row, Dragon Diffusion, and Bottega Veneta feel much more wearable year round for both women and men. Woven leather, braided suede, soft intrecciato shoulder bags, slouchy textured totes. They work just as well with wool coats and loafers as they do with white cotton skirts in July.

That’s probably why woven bags no longer feel tied strictly to summer anymore.

And celebrities have fully leaned into it too. Kendall Jenner has been carrying woven leather styles with relaxed tailoring for months now, while Zoë Kravitz has practically built an entire off-duty wardrobe around softened textures and understated accessories.

Even Jacob Elordi showing up to the airport with a giant woven duffle says a lot about where fashion is right now.

The appeal isn’t really about looking perfectly styled anymore. It’s about making simple outfits feel more lived in.

A plain tank suddenly feels intentional. Jeans and loafers look less corporate. Even an all-black outfit starts feeling richer once texture gets involved.

And maybe that’s why woven bags don’t really feel like a trend anymore. At this point, they feel more like fashion’s answer to overly polished dressing.

Because right now, the most stylish outfits rarely look perfectly put together anyway. They look softened. Relaxed. Slightly undone in a way that still feels expensive.

Which, honestly, is exactly what a really good woven bag does best.

Keep scrolling for the woven bags currently standing out to me most.

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