Handbag trends I wish would go away!

[NormaLouiseBates]

I love handbags. I’m a handbag person. They bring me much joy 🥹

However…

1. Vegan leather. There’s no such thing as vegan leather. It’s plastic. Or polyurethane or whatever. But “vegan leather” makes me roll my eyes hard 🙄
2. Oversized bag charms. Especially on really beautiful bags. They look ridiculous. Unless you’re 12… in which case carry on.
3. People referring to their bags as “her” and “she”. Stop it. I love a good bag unboxing video on YouTube, it’s a guilty pleasure of mine 😂 but your bag, as beautiful as it may be, is not a female. Just stop it!

Have I missed anything?

(Yes yes I know none of these things effect me directly and live and let live and all that etc etc)

Wasn’t it always called pleather before?

@NormaLouiseBates why use vegan leather or pleather in the first place? it is bloody plastic!! the same as vegan sausages?? why call them that? what is the point of making them look like real sausages? does it make people feel like they are eating real food??

Those ridiculously expensive crystal clutch bags shaped like fruit, the Eiffel Tower or whatever

The term "vegan leather" is just marketing spin... totally agree op

I feel the same about Mulberry. So dull, no imagination.

It’s all marketing isn’t it? People won’t want to buy a bag that’s described as plastic and they almost certainly won’t want to pay several hundred £££ for it!

See also : ‘vegan silk’. It’s viscose, and it will last for ten minutes and then be in landfill, decomposing very slowly and letting off all sorts of nasties which were used in processing it from the wood pulp.

I have silk shirts which I bought forty years ago ago and are still wearable. One of them was old when I bought it.

By vegan leather I hope it’s ethically made plastic that doesn’t contribute too much to destroying the planet. I think that’s why Stella McCartney and the like are so expensive. Also de designer mark-up, of course.

That one has a zipped compartment in the middle for your valuables but yeah I get you, I’d never buy one of those open tote style bags, I’d be paranoid about getting something stolen.

See what I love about Mulberry is that they’re classic, timeless styles that aren’t in your face designer. You wouldn’t see one and automatically know it was expensive and I like that about them.

I don’t understand the leather, but what’s wrong with vegan sausages? You get beef, pork, lamb, and Glamorgan sausages. I’m not sure how it’s different using vegan as an adjective?

Unfortunately fast fashion has jumped on the vegan label and used it to ‘green-wash’ cheap plastic shoes and bags.

There are some great non-plastic pleathers on the market now, so please don’t assume all are plastic based. However the best ones are usually from more specialist vegan companies and the high street gives vegan leather a bad name.

Also actual leather can be terrible for the environment so it’s not really fair to say vegan leather = bad and real leather = good. Some of the chemicals etc used in processing are awful, plus the environmental impact of raising animals for their skins (because leather is usually a co product of meat, or for luxury bags it’s the main product).

Bags that are too tiny to fit my phone and bags that have no inside pockets.

vegan leather gets on my nerves too. Like vegan cheese- I want to know what it’s actually made of. Either call it PVC or tell me it’s made of cactus or apple or what ever. I suspect the problem is that the cactus and apple types need a good coating of PVC to help consolidate them, but I’d love to be proved wrong.
WOC is another one that can die a death. Bags that are too small to fit a phone and can only take a credit card are useless imho.
I hope this thread doesn’t turn into a slag off bags in general thread because I do love a handbag video. (despite not understanding the love for Louis Vuitton) I really enjoy Steph of Handbagsholic. Who’s your favourite?

Maybe it depends on what you tend to carry around with you but I don't think there's much I would be willing to have in the open part - so I might as well get one that closes properly

It's also about things falling out

Maybe they are for people who drive everywhere, I cannot see myself using one in London where the weather is unpredictable and I am on public transport a lot

I'm trying to buy an evening bag at the moment....but they are all so small. Obviously I want a fairly smallish bag for a night out but I still need it to be large enough to fit my phone, keys and a few other bits.

This is the definition of leather: "a material made from the skin of an animal by tanning or a similar process."

The use of the word leather coupled with vegan is completely incompatible. There is no such thing as leather for vegans. There's plastic, petrochemical fabric or plant material fabric.

Goodness isn’t it exhausting (actually pointless) to have bothered to write that?

Oh god yes, WOC is the most pointless style of bag I’ve ever seen 😂 even on a night out I still need something big enough to fit my phone, vape, keys, lipstick and small hairbrush. My purse would be nice too but I can do without that if I have to.

I like Labels For Lunch and beeshopspink on YouTube but I’ll watch anyone doing a Mulberry unboxing 😂

Pleather. Faux leather. Plastic. Vinyl. Polyurethane Why not just call it what it is? Why are people using a polyurethane bag unable to call it that?

if it’s because it sounds like a cheap material then so what? If you are happy to use it the. You should be happy to call it what it is surely.

or use a canvas bag or waxed canvas bag if it needs to be waterproof

For people who don't like leather for ethical reasons, try Vinted for leather handbags - all the benefits of leather without supporting the meat trade.

You see that's something else I've learned on this thread. I hadn't heard of a WOC bag before.

Wallet on a chain eh?

👍

I hate the term vegan leather too.
Great marketing though.
Sounds so much better than plastic or polyurethane.
A wallet on a chain looks great but it’s truly form over function.
If it can’t take my phone, house key, lipstick, tissue and purse it’s not much use is it ?
I have an LV Neverfull tote - open - no zip 🙄 so I bought one of those large plastic make up bags, M&S and Primark sell them, often in a set of 2 or 3 see through bags and I put my essentials in that in the tote bag. Keeps my phone and purse safe from pickpockets.

I don't really get why people are so offended by the term vegan leather. It's really useful because "polyurathane bag" doesn't tell me anything about the texture and feel of the bag, but "vegan leather" tells me it's made using vegan materials but emulates the look and feel of leather.

I am fine with vegan cheese. Or nut cheese, oat milk, soy milk etc.

It seems to accurately describe the product I'll be getting.

Vegan "leather" however? No. We already have a perfectly good name for that: Plastic!