We're Entering an Age of Dangerous, Off-Kilter Handbags

Unprecedented. Dystopian. Potentially due for a rapture. Pick whichever best fits how you’d describe our current times—politically, emotionally, spiritually. If words fail you, take inspiration from luxury designers in Milan and Paris, who seem to have landed on a specific accessory to depict the state of the world in their Spring 2026 collections: topsy-turvy, one-strap handbags.

Jonathan Anderson’s womenswear debut at Dior included baby pink and blue bow-bedecked bags, each hanging from a single leather strap and swinging at an angle. Fendi’s Spring 2026 accessory lineup featured solo-strapped Peekaboos with sides filleted open to reveal colorful sequined interiors. At Loewe, newly-appointed creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez presented the first glimpse into what’s in store for the It-bag-making machine of a brand: single-strap leather Amazona 180s, carried haphazardly in models’ open fists, purposefully left unzipped, and slanted 45 degrees to the right.

Despite its pervasiveness on the Paris and Milan Fashion Week runways, a one-sided handbag, designed to splay open, is risky business. One wrong move, and your house keys fall out and end up down a storm drain. Watching Fendi’s splayed-open Peekaboo bag come down the runway, I felt the urge to reach through my screen and snap it safely closed. I’ve lived in New York City for nearly nine years now, and one of the first lessons I learned as a baby 18-year-old college student is to never leave your bag open in public, lest you want a pickpocket to walk away with your wallet.

Even with fixed security measures (surely these designer bags are equipped with appropriate closures), there's still something off about a one-strap bag design. Previously the creative director of Loewe, Anderson is known for his whimsical, subversive approach to fashion, so his off-kilter Dior bags were no surprise. However, they certainly came as a notable departure from the brand's signature demure, polished, buttoned-up aesthetic—a clear signal that the storied fashion house is heading into unexplored waters.

Some of Spring 2026’s one-sided bags did come with visible protection. Tod’s showed single-strapped bags with an oversized top flap to secure the opening, and Dior’s have sleek, built-in leather folds to cover their interiors. If you take Loewe’s one-sided totes out into the wild, you’re welcome to ignore McCollough and Hernandez’s runway styling and keep yours zipped shut.

In the wrongness of a one-strap bag, I also sense an earnestness and vulnerability that's quite human and very of the times. Currently, the world does feel like it's tilted on its axis. We’re all coping the best we can as we watch news headlines somehow get more deranged and wars (literal and cultural) unfold. For fashion’s top creative minds, processing that uncertainty and fear meant handbags that flap open in the wind and careen to one side.

Personally, I also feel like I'm hanging on by a thread on some days. A bag that matches my mood can maybe be a kind of comfort.

Get an Early Start on Spring 2026's One-Sided Bag Trend