Models Carried Tory Burch's Hit-Bag-in-the-Making With Reckless Abandon
In the new series What I Loved Yesterday, Harper's Bazaar editors highlight one standout look from the previous day at New York Fashion Week.
Six years ago, I gave away a Tory Burch bag to a friend. It was a leopard-print bag with the brand's gold TB emblem front and center. I bought it when I went off to college, the same one Burch attended, because I felt so different from the preppy Ivy Leaguers around me—I thought it might help me fit in. Ultimately, I was no Blair Waldorf, and the bag never felt like me. At the time, Tory Burch seemed like a buttoned-up brand that was far too polite for my personal style.
But the Tory Burch of the past looks very different than the Tory Burch of the now. I've squealed with delight at every single runway show the brand has put on in the past two years, and at the fall 2023 show, the thing that made me fangirl the hardest was a bag.
It looked nothing like the proper one I toted around to beer-soaked frat parties all those years ago—this one was actually a little weird. The brand's famous emblem was cut in two pieces, the bottom half swinging out from under it like the pendulum of an old clock. The models held the handle with loose fingertips, and the top flap was left opened, like they got ready in a rush.
In the show notes, Burch wrote that she wanted to break down the traditional wardrobe and rebuild it was an "undone attitude." The collection was all about "the confidence that comes with being unapologetically yourself," she said. The new Tory girl breaks rules instead of following them. Other logo-less bags on the runway had a similarly undone attitude, with chains tied to the base of the handle like an accessory added on from the model's own jewelry box.
Recently, fashion fans online have been talking about the power of a worn-in bag, inspired by two of the greatest to ever do it: Mary-Kate Olsen with her red-wine-stained pastel Balenciaga city bag and Jane Birkin with her beat-up Birkin adorned with stickers and trinkets. Burch's new hit-bag-in-the-making takes the principle of not caring what happens to your purse and makes it something you can buy instead of earn. Of course, the only thing that would make this bag more impossibly cool was if it was stained with wine or had a lace-monogrammed handkerchief tied to the side. There's nothing sexier than a bag that tells the story of the cool woman carrying it.
Finally, there's a Tory Burch bag that represents who I am instead of who I feel the need to become. And once I get my hands on this one, I definitely won't be giving it away.
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