A Guide to 1990s Handbags

Sample photograph: three vintage handbags on stepped limestone — replace with your own

The nineties gave handbags their modern grammar: structure over slouch, hardware as signature, and the first true It bags. Three decades on, the best examples are archives you can carry.

What to look for: a frame that has kept its corners, plating without brass-through, and interiors that were lived in but not lived on. The decade’s box leathers age into a glow that no new bag can fake — which is exactly why collectors hunt them.

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