It’s All In the Way Rihanna Carries Her Bag

While schlepping home through Kings Cross station earlier this week, the straps on my second-hand Fendi bag snapped. I bought the disintegrating thing back in March and never treated it with much love: cramming it with a landfill of spare shoes, laptops and (still unread) hardbacks, and letting it fester beneath other people’s dirty coats at work events. I should (but probably won’t) get it repaired.

This breakage has–for obvious reasons–rendered the bag almost useless. A sad, oversized clutch. I can’t sling it over my shoulders as I used to, and instead have to wrap my entire arm around its body like the models did at Miu Miu and Prada’s spring 2025 presentations. And yet this take-charge gesture feels a more potent expression of style than the monogrammed receptacle itself. I have learnt that sometimes it’s not about the bag, but the attitude with which it’s worn.

Take, for example, Rihanna, who was last night photographed strolling through Manhattan, dressed in ribbed pajama separates and draped in an enormous coat from Bottega Veneta’s fall 2024 collection. She didn’t transport the brand’s Sardine bag by its gold-tone handle–how plebeian–but rather clutched it front-on. It was a subtle, stand-offish motion that could have read, “Kiss my hand.” I’m sure Matthieu Blazy will be delivering the same direction to his models in the seasons to come.