The Affordable Designer Bags You Haven't Seen Everywhere... Yet
There’s a lot of stuff out there, and not all fashion pieces are created equal. Luckily, the ELLE editors know their way around a shopping rail, and when it comes to helping you find those niche brands worth knowing to high-street hits of quality, and a few vintage treasures too, our ELLE Edits showcase the very best of the season.
While there is nothing quite like the thrill of unboxing a major designer bag, you don’t need to spend more than the average mortgage to get your hands on a handbag that’ll make every outfit feel that little bit more special.
Today, plenty of mid-range brands are leaning heavily into accessories, serving up affordable designer bags that don’t disappoint in either design or quality. In recent years, the rise of the contemporary label – fuelled by the likes of Ganni, Rejina Pyo et al – has opened up the floor for a stable of cult designers that challenge the traditional blockbuster offering, serving up something far cooler for a price that isn’t completely out of reach.
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Best affordable bag brands by category
Best for woven leather: Dragon Diffusion
Best for Parisian chic: Polène
Best for quiet luxury: Liffner
Best for trending silhouettes: Osoi
Best for vegan leather: Mashu
Best for Noughties vibes: Marge Sherwood
For quiet-luxury fans, Liffner, Chylak and De Mellier are delivering forensically considered designs that marry form and function perfectly. Here, uncompromising quality is combined with planet-positive initiatives, from partnerships with independent artisans to charity projects that ensure your purchase has a positive impact.
At the other end of the spectrum, the likes of Charles and Keith and Puppets and Puppets are imagining sell-out statement bags that look as good in real life as they do on Instagram (if you can actually get your hands on one, that is). You'll find all the new season's key silhouettes at JW Pei – think silver leather, sculptural shapes and the essential puffer bag – and of course, for designs destined to blow up on TikTok, turn to South Korea’s young designers: Marge Sherwood and Osoi are two gaining fans in the ELLE UK office this season.
Here, see the ultimate guide to the best affordable bag brands of 2024.
The Affordable Designer Bags You'll Find In ELLE Editors' Wardrobes
Dragon Diffusion
Best for: Woven leather
Craig Wright never set out to create a viral handbag brand when he founded Dragon Diffusion back in 1985. In fact, he was more than happy simply supplying luxury brands with his signature woven artisanal leather – but once he started experimenting with his own basket-style designs, the brand took on a life of its own.
The lack of branding, advertising, PR and gifting served only to add to Dragon Diffusion's allure, and now, these bags are among Net-A-Porter's best-sellers. Most impressive of all, however, is that each one is still made by hand in India from the finest leather, and costs less than £500. We're sold.
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Aesther Ekme
Best for: Scandi minimalism
Aesther Ekme specialises in slick, sculptural bags made from leather sourced from tanneries approved by the Leather Working Group.
A minimalist dream, the brand's architectural, angular shapes make a statement in the most sophisticated way: expect shoulder bags masterfully curved to slip around your shoulder, and cross-bodies that are nipped and tucked to create new, outfit-refreshing shapes.
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Coperni
Best for: Cutting-edge cool
A brand that understands the power of a viral moment, Coperni was propelled to the forefront of fashion when its SS23 show featured Bella Hadid having a dress spray-painted onto her live in front of the captivated front row.
The best way to buy into the brand, however, is via its excellent bag designs: you've likely seen the oval-shaped Swipe before, but for the new season don't sleep on the roomy Belt Cabas.
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Osoi
Best for: Trending silhouettes
Helping cement Seoul’s reputation as the home of promising young designers, Osoi combines slick silhouettes with on-point details to create bags that bely their pleasing price tags. We love the curved croissant bag, the Mini Toni, but for something a decidedly of-the-moment, it has to be the Alaia-esque east-west Boat Wide bag.
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Polène
Best for: Parisian chic
A trio of French siblings founded the Parisian leather goods brand Polène back in 2016, and it's been an insider favourite for sculptural, impeccably made yet affordable handbags practically ever since. Last year, however, the brand went viral on TikTok, and soon enough, opened stores in London, Seoul, New York and Tokyo due to demand. If you can beat the wait-lists and queues, we recommend getting your hands on the signature, swan-like Cyme for everyday, and the glorious Numéro Neuf Mini (pictured left) that's made from leather off-cuts.
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Liffner
Best for: Quiet luxury
Totally timeless design is on the menu at Little Liffner, the brand that combines Scandinavian simplicity with Italian craftsmanship.
Practical yet polished, these wear-forever companions make their luxury status known through fine materials rather than shouty details. Expect the most supple brown suede totes, pillowy leather shoulder bags and some of the most refined basket-weaving we’ve laid our eyes on.
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Staud
Best for: LA cool
LA-based brand Staud is another mainstay in many a fashion insider’s wardrobe, and this season the brand has gone all-in on a collection of seriously fun autumnal bags. Expect leopard print, glossy burgundy leather and enough beading to see you through every upcoming party in style.
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DeMellier
Best for: Timeless sophistication
Barcelona-born, London-based Mireia Llusia-Lindh founded DeMellier following a career advising some of the biggest fashion houses on the planet. Her design nous is clear to see in this considered edit of slick, perfectly formed bags, which are striking enough to spark conversation, yet never tied to an ephemeral trend.
Each piece is made in a small Spanish factory using palm raffia, apple-based vegan leather and food byproduct animal leather, certified by the Leather Working Group. Absolutely nothing goes to waste: even the scraps are donated to local apprentice schools – and the brand’s ongoing initiative, A Bag, A Life, means every purchase funds the provision of vaccines to children in need.
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Mashu
Best for: Vegan leather
Mashu’s vegan-leather shoulder bags are handmade in Athens by a group of independent artisans and small, family-run factories. An ode to her Greek heritage, designer Ioanna Topouzoglou elevates each striking design with sublime molten-gold hardware, crafted just like a piece of jewellery.
With its neat bar-style top handle, the Iris is ideal for late nights and special events, but currently stealing our hearts is the waved-edge Aphrodite.
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Ganni
Best for: Sparking joy
One that likely needs little introduction, Ganni is our go-to for bags that combine capital-F fun with the kind of practicality a girl needs when her day starts at a sunrise Pilates class and ends in a bustling bar.
The brand's most recognisable style is probably the Bou – a shapely, squat shoulder bag with a cute braided handle – but equally living rent-free on our wish-lists is the logo-embroidered shopper in signature leopard print, into which you can stuff your every last essential.
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Puppets and Puppets
Best for: Surrealist styles
Carly Mark’s unique brand of sartorial surrealism is perfectly summed up by a slouchy leather shoulder bag, swinging from a banana handle.
Does that sound like just the thing to shake up your wardrobe? You’re in for a treat. Beyond the fruit-bowl inspiration, there’s a host of art-becomes-fashion madness in store here, namely tote bags punctuated by chocolate-chip cookies, telephones, and tarantulas.
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Marge Sherwood
Best for: Noughties vibes
Sungeun Um and Soonyoung Kim created their bag project, Marge Sherwood, as an ode to the restrained style of Gwyneth Paltrow’s character in The Talented Mr Ripley. Turns out, that niche (yet conveniently timely) starting point translates as a series of simple yet precisely formed bags that seamlessly combine form and function. Here, slouchy silhouettes are cinched by Noughties-style buckles, cut to curve neatly around the body, and finished with bold embossed logos.
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Charles & Keith
Best for: Unbeatable prices
Here's one for those who want a statement-making accessory without a bank-bulldozing price tag. Singaporean Charles & Keith has long been the fashion influencers’ secret destination for bags and shoes that make a serious impact.
Right now, there are so many viral successes on the site: the Crescent Hobo is your shopping-at-the-weekend winner (you need to see the sheer mesh version) while the Odella Curved Tote is large enough to stuff your trainers in, should you be inclined to finally use that gym membership.
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Lulu Guinness
Best for: Kitsch designs
Lulu Guinness is nothing short of a British fashion icon, whose playful, conversation-starting handbag designs have graced the arms of everyone from Kate Middleton to Sienna Miller and Bella Hadid over the years. The Lips clutch is probably her most recognisable design and every bit as covetable today as it was when it first launched more than 20 years ago – plus, 30% of proceeds will now go to Choose Love as part of a new campaign.
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JW Pei
Best for: Influencer favourites
Jw Pei might be a cool-girl go-to, but the brand has only actually been in operation for a mere five years. Nevertheless, the LA-born vegan-friendly bag brand enjoys quite the cult following for its sculptural shapes and statement embellishments.
We’re currently obsessed with the petite Hana bag which, in supple faux suede, looks so much more expensive than it is. For something more architectural, consider the asymmetric cured Harlee shoulder bag, last seen on, well, every influencer on your feed.
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Furla
Best for: Italian elegance
Furla may have been a fashion mainstay for decades now, but this year the brand has delivered some especially fresh-feeling bag silhouettes. The Sfera, pictured left, is a true marriage of style and practicality: it's shaped to a boxy silhouette that'll work perfectly alongside easy denim and smarter looks, yet is big enough to actually fit your phone and make-up bag in. Bellissimo!
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Giarite
Best for: Party sparkles
Here’s one for the magpies. Giarite makes the kind of evening bags that are best combined with your slinkiest dress and highest heels. You may have seen the brand’s star piece, the Brilly bag before: when it launched in 2021, it instantly gained main-feed real estate on some of the biggest Instagram grids. Covered in crystals and just big enough for the out-out essentials (phone, keys, lip gloss), it’s the ultimate late-night companion.
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Chylak
Best for: Feminine details
Chylak was one of the first fledging brands to hit the big-time based purely on the strength of its design. In 2014, founder Zofia Chylak launched the label with the aim to bridge the gap between high-street, low-quality accessories and the four-figure Big Fashion stable.
The bags are made in the brand’s Polish hometown using fine Italian leather, while the more recent shoe line is made entirely in Italy by a family-owned workshop (that’s a byword for very good quality indeed). Keeping production small allows Chylak to stay brilliantly pedantic about every last detail: trims are all made from recycled materials, linings are fashioned from EcoVero™, and every hot-stamped edition number, which appears on the front of every bag, is precisely finished to reflect the light perfectly.
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