Buying Designer Handbags on a Budget

As a teenager, I paid more attention to the ads in Vogue than the articles. The number one fashion magazine in North America made me acutely aware of just how much of the fashion that I loved and craved was out of my reach. More than anything, I dreamed of a Dior saddlebag. But my love for the Chloe Paddington bag was equally ardent. Neither was accessible to me. It was the early 2000s, after all – we were still reading print magazines. No one owned a cell phone. The advent of online shopping, my current favourite pastime, was almost a decade in the future. But even if I could have bought a designer handbag online, the price point was well beyond my limited budget at that time. So far beyond it, in fact, that I was convinced I would never be able to afford one.

Back then, Club Monaco defined high fashion in Winnipeg. In many ways, it still does. My hometown is boasts exactly zero designer stores, and our Holt Renfrew, reduced to a catalogue order outpost, closed around 2005. But times are changing. Luxury consignment shop So Over It opened a few years ago, revealing just how many Winnipegers have incredible designer accessories hiding in their closets. I’m just one of them.

The question is, how did I go from thinking I could never (in my entire life) afford designer handbags to owning a small, curated collection of close to a dozen? Sometimes, it still surprises me, but the answer to that question is surprisingly simple.

“Ordinary life does not interest me.”
– Anais Nin

Disclaimer: Currently, I have a healthy, but not limitless, budget. That was not always the case. My salary was less than half of what it is now when I bought my first designer handbag, but I have always lived in a position of relative financial privilege. I already had a mortgage when I bought my first designer bag – home ownership was a priority for me, personally, before bag ownership. But apart from that, I had, and still have, absolutely no debts. All of my advice is based on my own experiences, which are influenced by the factors I’ve just outlined.

First things first, start small

…and I’m not talking about the size of the bag. For a long time, I was under the impression that all designer handbags were unaffordable, so I didn’t bother with anything practical like research into price points. In reality, different brands and styles of bags come at a variety of different price points. That still doesn’t mean there is a designer bag for every budget. But if, like me, you won’t settle for ordinary and are determined to own a designer handbag wherever you’re starting from financially, I’m confident you’ll be able to find a bag you can afford with diligent saving.

My first bag, which I bought in Paris in 2011, was the Louis Vuitton Speedy 25. It’s still one of the most affordable designer handbags available, at $1530 CAD. (Back in 2011, I paid about $1000 for it.) It’s also the most durable handbag I’ve ever owned. At nearly ten years old, it looks better than ever and I still carry it all the time. The Loewe Raffia Tote is also a great option if you’re taking your first step into the world of designer handbags – beautiful, iconic and priced under $1000.

Save, save, save

No bag is worth going into debt. (Really. Not even the bag of my dreams, the Chanel 2.55 in black caviar with gold hardware.) I have a specific savings account, independent of my other savings accounts, that I use just to save for designer handbags. Even putting a small deposit in from each pay cheque will eventually add up to significant savings and get you to the bag of your dreams. I started out with increments of $25 per pay.

For me personally, saving was the easy part – but when I did save, I struggled to part with so much money at once. At times, I still do. My parents are generally practical and economical people who tend to see all purses as essentially the equal. (They would, I’m sure, be appalled to know the price of some of the bags in my collection.) Everyone places value on different material things in life, and what we value is valid, no matter what it might be. If you value a certain designer handbag and save the money for it, don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t worth it. And don’t let the anxiety of spending so much money on just one thing be what holds you back from making a purchase. If you truly love that thing, whatever it is, and will keep it for a lifetime, it’s worth the investment.

With that said, remember that you don’t need every bag, just a few good bags you really love. (Even if you love them all, you still don’t need them all. I understand the impulse but trust me, you don’t need them all.) I’ve been buying designer handbags since 2011 at a rate of approximately one per year, sometimes less. It takes time to build a good collection, and its worth spending time to build a collection that’s really meaningful to you.

Think about the future

The future of fashion, I mean. When you’re working with a budget, a designer handbag is always an investment and you want to love it for a lifetime. Which means this season’s IT bag might not be the best choice, unless it’s a style you already loved from a designer whose collections inspire you. I’m still glad I didn’t invest in a Celine Luggage Tote, although I deeply covetted one when they had their moment. I wouldn’t love it now and the expense wouldn’t have been justified.

When buying designer bags, I still to the classics. For me, the classics are designers that I’ve always loved, neutral colours that go with everything I own and silhouettes that will stand the test of time… which is why I still don’t own a Bottega Veneta Pouch.

If you really love the style of a particular designer handbag at a specific moment in time, but don’t think you’ll love it forever, that’s okay. There are so many different versions of the same bag in the world, there is no doubt you can find an alternative at a lower price point to love for a short time. But beware of passing of “dupes” and “super fakes” as the real thing. Even if people seem convinced, someone will always catch on – and you’ll always know your bag isn’t what it’s pretending to be.

Shop Secondhand

The experience of buying your first designer handbag in a designer boutique is one that every fashion lover should get to have, if they want it. I loved choosing my Louis Vuitton bag at the Louis Vuitton boutique on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Sipping champagne while the sales staff packed it up for me was pure magic.

…but you don’t need that experience with every bag. And the world is full of amazing, gently used designer bags that you won’t find anywhere apart from a secondhand store. My Chanel 2.55 Jumbo Single Flap Bag is proof of that. The new version costs somewhere in the realm of $10,000 CAD. Secondhand versions in good condition from particularly popular collections can sell for more than $12,000 CAD. But my bag was tucked away in the corner of a small depot vente in Paris, lonely and low priced because it was in an accident on the metro. It was fully restored, but the store still wasn’t convinced it held much of its original worth.

Maybe it doesn’t on the resale market, but it certainly does to me. It’s my favourite bag in my collection, as well as the one I use most often. And I feel so lucky every time I reflect on how it was by pure happenstance that I found it. (Since you’re all dying to know, I’ll confess: I paid just over $2000 CAD for it in February 2019.) It’s lived a life. It isn’t absolutely pristine. But it’s beautiful, and it’s mine.

Shop Local

Paris is an amazing place to buy pre-loved designer handbags. So is Milan. And London, and New York. But the market for them in those major cities is enormous. Sellers are extremely savvy and price secondhand bags, for the most part, as highly as they think they can get away with. Does that mean you won’t find a unicorn? Nothing is impossible. But it means the process of finding a dream bag at a fraction of the retail price is much lower than if you shop at a local luxury consignment store. So Over It in Winnipeg has been a treasure trove for me – both my vintage Dior and vintage Fendi bag have come from there. And I’ve left behind many, many other secondhand bags I’ve loved, despite the fact that they were very reasonably priced. (I can’t have them all, much as that pains me.)

If you have any questions about buying designer handbags, let me know in the Comments!

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