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New York Fashion Week will quickly teach you the difference between a bag that looks good and a bag that can actually work. When your day starts with a morning show, includes interviews, backstage appointments and presentations, and somehow ends with a dinner or party, whatever is on your shoulder has to keep up. This season, I rotated between two bags depending on what the day demanded: an oversized Coach bag when I was essentially carrying my office around Manhattan, and an Isabel Marant bag when my schedule allowed me to leave the laptop behind.
On the days when I needed to squeeze work in between shows, my Coach Ludlow Messenger bag became my mobile office. My work MacBook went in first, followed by my DJI camera, camera stand, portable charger, charging cables and blocks, plus a few bars because Fashion Week has a funny way of making 4 p.m. arrive before you realize you haven’t eaten a real meal. The beauty of the bag was that I didn’t have to play Tetris every time I needed something. It carried the ridiculous amount of stuff required to cover Fashion Week without feeling like I was walking around with a traditional laptop or camera bag. More importantly, it still looked polished enough to take from the front row to an appointment.
When I had a day where the MacBook could stay home, I downsized to my Maia Medium Isabel Marant bag. Surprisingly, I could still fit almost everything from my Fashion Week survival kit inside, minus the camera stand. But functionality wasn’t the only reason it became a favorite. Every single time I wore it, somebody had something to say about it. The mix of olive green and warm brown suede, slouchy shape and braided straps made it feel a little unexpected among a sea of black leather bags. It became a conversation starter without trying too hard, which is exactly what a great accessory should do.
After a week of running around New York, both bags earned their keep for completely different reasons. Coach carried my office. Isabel Marant carried everything else and collected compliments along the way. Fashion Week may be about the clothes, but sometimes the real MVP is the bag holding your laptop, camera, chargers and emergency snack while you’re trying to make the next show on time.