The Allure of the “Midrange” Bag

When Beyoncé tells you she’s exiling her Birkin bags to storage, you listen. “This Telfar bag imported, Birkins, them shits in storage,” she repeats on “Summer Renaissance,” the final song from her dance-infused album Renaissance (2022). The Hermès Birkin, which is notoriously hard to get and is infamously one of the most expensive bags in the world, has become a symbol of a certain level of wealth that charters private jets with a money manager on speed dial. 

As most Beyoncé-related things tend to do, such a strong stance on the Birkin bag split the internet, with some agreeing that they’re over the idolization and oversaturation of Birkins while others insist on its timeless credibility. But it’s also worth noting that in the lyrics, it’s not another glitzy designer that’s supposedly supplanted the $10,000 Birkin, but rather, a $200 Telfar bag. 

Though the lyrics may be in jest, it signals something larger happening in the world of luxury: a growing embrace from the obscenely exorbitant to a more “modest” form of luxury. And leading the charge is a burgeoning circuit of brands designing bags that embody the quality construction of their higher-priced counterparts but at roughly half the cost. Thoughtfully designed, this class of midrange luxury bags differs from the affordable leather totes that propelled its predecessors like Coach decades ago. With whimsical shapes and elevated designs, these bags almost feel bespoke—the quality virtually indistinguishable from ones emblazoned with a shiny big-name logo.