Famous women have lugged their personals around in Hermès Birkins for decades – and recently, celebrities including Dua Lipa and Anne Hathaway have added charms to theirs in honour of Jane Birkin (the inspiration behind the bag), who often filled hers to the brim with beaded bracelets and tags attached to the handles.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are two such Birkin devotees, and have been known to carry well-aged styles (scuffed, crinkled and warped) over the years. But the sisters are behind another capacious tote that was everywhere in 2024: The Row’s Margaux bag. Now a signature of the luxury brand, which was founded in 2006, retailers often struggle to keep the bag in stock, while its starry fanbase continues to grow – Kendall Jenner, Zoë Kravitz, Taylor Russell, Rosé, Elle Fanning, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jennifer Lawrence, to name but a few.
The Margaux has been reinterpreted in various colourways and fabrications since it was first introduced, becoming a permanent fixture in the label’s accessories arsenal. At the time of writing, it is available in several sizes (10, 12, 15 and 17 inches, an elongated east-west style, a shoulder bag with longer handles and a clutch), made from suede, buttery leather and a canvas-leather combination, in multiple colourways (among them: black, mocha, cuir, cognac, muschio, marine, orange and ivory) on its dedicated e-commerce site, which it relaunched last year. Limited styles also feature across the department stores that stock The Row and at their very-own flagships; blending in perfectly with the curated art and furniture that define their brick-and-mortar spaces in London, Los Angeles, New York and Paris.
The slouchy shape is immediately recognisable without the need for a stamped logo at its centre, and its price tag – currently upwards of £3,380 – reflects the luxury pricing of the label’s ready-to-wear line. “The whole exercise was to see whether, if something was made beautifully, in great fabric, with good fit, it would sell without a logo or a name on it,” the Olsens previously explained to British Vogue, of carving their brand vision in the early aughts. “And it worked.”
Given that demand currently outweighs supply, customers have turned to resale sites to try and track down the Margaux. There are several styles in circulation on Vestiaire Collective – listed at premium prices above retail – while eBay reported a recent 380 per cent surge in interest earlier this year. The latter offers an Authenticity Guarantee service, which means customers can buy with the assurance that their item is genuine.
The key to the Olsens’ success? They pay close attention to their customer’s needs, providing whatever they may require with each collection. As Mary-Kate previously told British Vogue: “I feel really fortunate to be very close with those women, and they really do dictate where we go season to season […] When we design, we’re designing for specific clients… We understand what their day looks like, how and when they travel”. Their loyals were clearly top of mind when creating the Margaux – and it shows.
