A Tiny List of Excellent Handbags

How to choose them + my favorite feel-good styles for modern times.

Hi friends, two quick things: Being mindful of tomorrow’s Economic Blackout today’s newsletter focuses primarily on fantastic independent and woman-owned brands I love a lot and want to support. Second, the month got away from me with so much happening, and last week was A Tiny Apt.’s 3-year anniversary ❤️ (weeee did ittttt:). As a thank you to everyone who’s joined us here, I’m offering a limited-time discount on an annual paid subscription to A Tiny Apt.—just $30 (reduced from $50). Today’s newsletter and other signature tiny + excellent resources for honing your home/style/life like it are part of the package—along with a story archive of nearly 200 editions about how to navigate it all, plus access to our extremely cool flash sales, thrifting + vintage roundups, tiny cabin updates, etc. I hope you’ll join us in helping to support what we do here—it means a lot…xxCb

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I’ve been preparing for a photo-shoot over the past week, as well as a bit of a bedroom refresh here at Tiny Apt. HQ (I can’t wait to tell you more about it:). And hence, my corners and closet have all been in a state of undress (ie: tornado-ville 🌪️). As I was sorting and rearranging, I was looking up at the top shelf of my closet, the shelf where I keep my handbags (about 12 or so) and I realized, particularly over the past two years, it’s the part of my closet I interact with the least.

And yet, a good, reliable handbag is one of the things we depend on the MOST.

Now that I mostly work from home, I don’t really have the need to switch out my bag as often as I once did when I worked in an office or had numerous fancy activities to attend. My life is still busy and worthy of creative outfit planning, but the demands of my handbag game are much less heady. Not to mention the shift in qualities that make me love one handbag more than another.

If I Still Worked In An Office

Whereas once I probably favored a bag for how it looked (and maybe what it symbolized…like HEYYY, I made it) I now care much (much) more about other stuff…like how it rests on my body, how easy it is to open/close and access things, and how prepared it makes me feel for whatever crazy shenanigans 😬 may be awaiting me around the corner. During uncertain times, like say…now…we want the things we buy/keep/and love to be not only well worth it but wonderfully life-enhancing, too. Like it’s not just a BAG, but a comforting salve for everyday living. Which means the compartments and size make sense, the hardware is pleasing to look at (ie: not cheap!) and offers the right functionality, and the strap adjusts accordingly to my degree of care-free’edness 🍸 or lack thereof 👹.

So, even though I have many beautiful bags in my closet that I use occasionally (most of them now vintage), I am basically never not curious about a handbag that wears a whole LOT of hats—like we do—crushing all 17 jobs we’re simultaneously doing while perpetually showing up (or trying to 👑) like a total fox.

My kind of It Bag, the Anni in black leather, courtesy of Lindquist, a woman-owned studio in East Providence, Rhode Island.

In my years of tweaking/editing down my micro wardrobe, I’ve created a tiny filter/check-list for choosing the perfect handbag for modern times…nothing fancy here, just the basics:

1. It’s a solid investment—because you can use it for years and its shape + style endures (so its value does, too:)

2. It helps us stay organized and prepared—for anything (especially if you have a little one who frequently needs things from your great-looking bag, too)

3. It carries us—throughout endless activities, moods, and interactions, and lifts us up on days we can barely pull ourselves together

4. It makes us feel good—and a bit chic, which helps us do ALL the other things we need to do behind the scenes…because they are, quite frankly, ENDLESS

After lots of scanning/searching and in some cases personally testing, I’ve chosen 12 bags here…styles that make me excited to get dressed and moving in the morning. Bags that check ALL the boxes, and then some. So, let’s get into it…

The Anni bag by Lindquist.

According to Lindquist Anni is named for visionary textiles artist/weaver Anni Albers “and her capacity to hold the past within the present, her intuitive geometries, her deep love of materials and process.” Not only am I a super fan of Albers, I also admire Lindquist who make all their artisan-crafted bags and objects at their gorgeous studio in Rhode Island. I just love what they do and aesthetically/practically this bag is pretty much a home-run.