Types of Women's Bags: Which One to Choose?

Three bags hang by the door and in practice all three are the same bag: medium, black, on the shoulder. What separates types of women's bags is not colour but three things, the shape of the body, the way it is carried and the capacity. Everything else is finishing.

How do you tell the types of bag apart?

The names of bag shapes describe the body rather than the size or the material, which is why the same bag can be a hobo and a suede one at the same time. The table below sorts the most common types by how you recognise them.

Three rows from this table are chosen most often and they cover a whole year. A shopper handles anything needing A4 format, so it replaces a briefcase. A hobo is its opposite: a soft body adapts to its contents and to the hip, which is why it looks right even empty. A box bag holds its shape whatever is inside, and it is the only one of the three that lifts the register of a look by itself. You will find all three across bags.

Which bag suits which occasion?

The occasion decides the capacity rather than the shape, so the question is closer to how much do I need to fit than to what is current. Start there.

• For work. A shopper or a large hobo, at least A4 format, with a flat base so it stands on a desk.
• For study. A shopper with a laptop compartment and a fastening, because an open bag in a crowd is asking for trouble.
• For an evening out. A baguette or a small box bag, for a phone, keys and a card only.
• For a whole day in the city. A messenger on a long strap or a belt bag, because both leave your hands free.

Formal occasions follow a separate rule: the more formal the event, the smaller the bag. With a piece from dresses at a wedding or a gala you take a box bag or a clutch, never a shopper, even if the colour matches.

How do you match a bag to your figure?

A bag visually enlarges whichever part of the body it finishes level with, and every other rule follows from that. The rest is the proportion between the size of the bag and your height.

Below 165 centimetres, small and medium models are safer, because a large shopper on a shorter figure takes a few centimetres of height away. Above 175 centimetres it works the other way: a small bag on a short strap looks like an accessory borrowed from someone else. To move attention away from the hips, choose a model finishing at the waist or higher, a messenger on a shortened strap for example. To move it away from the shoulders, reach for a bag carried low at the hip.

Strap length is set once and left alone. An adjustable strap gives three positions: under the arm, at the waist and at the hip. A change of ten centimetres shifts the whole centre of gravity of a look.

The width of the strap is worth checking separately. Narrow, below two centimetres, it cuts into the shoulder with heavier contents and slides off an outer layer. Wide, above four centimetres, it spreads the weight better but becomes a visible element and competes with the neckline and the collar.

Which material should a bag be?

The material decides how a bag ages, and it separates a piece for one season from a piece for several years. Full grain leather develops a patina, suede rubs through, coated materials crack at the folds.

• Full grain leather. The most durable, it darkens over time and gains a shine where hands touch it, and it needs proofing twice a year.
• Suede. Soft and matte, but it absorbs water and oil, so it needs a protective spray before the first outing.
• Faux leather. Rain resistant and cheaper, though it cracks at the corners and handles after two or three seasons.
• Cotton and crochet weave. Light and breathable, good in summer, but they hold no shape and take no heavy contents.

Full grain leather shows its natural grain and small irregularities in daylight, and in movement it reflects light unevenly, so the bag looks alive rather than plastic. It is the same difference you see between good and poor pieces from linen and muslin: a natural fibre is never perfectly even.

How do you recognise a well made bag?

The quality of a bag shows in four places a product photograph never shows: the lining, the base seams, the hardware and the zip. The body is usually the last thing to fail.

Look inside and check whether the lining is stitched in rather than glued, and whether it has a separate zipped pocket. Look at the base: feet or reinforcement at the corners mean the maker allowed for the bag standing on a floor. Pull the handle where it attaches, because that is where all the weight works, and check whether it is riveted or double stitched. Finally run the zip both ways with one hand: a good zip needs no holding of the other side.

Which size of bag should you choose?

The size of a bag is chosen against what you genuinely carry on an ordinary day rather than against what could theoretically fit. The most common mistake is buying one size too large.

Do a simple test before buying. Lay out on a table what you carry daily: phone, wallet, keys, a small pouch, a water bottle, possibly a laptop or a notebook. The bag should take that set with about a fifth to spare, no more. With a larger margin the contents tip over inside and have to be hunted for, and the bag itself loses shape because nothing fills it from within.

Three brackets are enough to navigate this. Small is around 20 by 15 centimetres and takes a phone, a card and keys. Medium runs 30 by 22 centimetres and adds a pouch and a small bottle. Large starts at 35 centimetres wide and only that will take A4 format or a thirteen inch laptop. If you are torn between medium and large, check how many days a week you genuinely carry a laptop.

The weight of the empty bag matters too and it is rarely looked at. A large shopper in rigid leather can weigh over a kilogram before you put anything in it, and that weight hangs on one shoulder all day.

What not to pair a bag with

Three mistakes repeat regardless of the shape, and all of them come from repeating the same feature twice.

• Do not match a bag to shoes in the same colour and material, because the look then reads as a 1990s set rather than a considered choice.
• Avoid a bag with a pronounced texture beside pieces with a strong pattern, because the weave and the print compete and neither is noticed.
• Never carry a large shopper with a short, close fitting silhouette, because the scale of the bag overwhelms the whole figure.
• Do not hang a bag on the shoulder of a delicate knit from sweaters, because the strap wears the stitch at one point and leaves a permanent mark.

How many bags are enough?

Three cover a whole year: one large for work, one medium for every day and one small for the evening. A fourth only makes sense once you need a separate colour or material for summer.

Colours follow the same order. The first bag in brown or black, the second in a colour you already have across coats and outerwear, the third free. If one of the three sits unused through a season, it almost always means it repeats the function of another rather than that it is unattractive. One decisive piece from jewellery is often a better addition, because it changes the character of a look more cheaply than a new bag.

How does a hobo differ from a bucket bag?

A hobo has one shoulder strap and a crescent shaped body that falls under its own weight. A bucket bag is round, drawn in with a cord or a channel at the top, and has no clear lower edge.

How do you store bags so they keep their shape?

Fill the body with acid free paper or soft fabric and stand the bag upright on a shelf, never hang it by the strap. A hanging bag deforms where the handle attaches, and the leather stretches permanently at that point.

Does a bag have to match the shoes?

It does not, that rule disappeared along with 1990s matching sets. It is safer to link the bag to one other element of a look, a belt or something from accessories for instance, and leave the shoes in a neutral colour.

Which single bag works for travel?

A messenger on a long strap, because it leaves your hands free and takes documents, a phone and a water bottle. For a flight, choose a model with a fastening main compartment and at least one zipped pocket on the back.

Back to those three identical bags by the door. The problem is not how many there are, it is that all of them do the same job. Swapping one of them for a different shape, a soft hobo or a small box bag, gives you more than buying a fourth in the same form.