From The Straits Times    |

Photo: Showbit

Here’s how it normally goes with the so-called ‘It-bags’ of seasons past: We could only desire them for their guise, keeping in mind that these receptacles are far from practical for our lifestyles.

Recall: Chloe’s Nile bag and Gucci’s Marmont belt bag; the two stand-out It-bags from 2017. Nifty, dainty and oh-so-pettite, these bags were hot amongst street style stars, flooding the f-row at plenty of fashion shows at Paris Fashion Week last March. But were they functional — by ‘functional’, we really mean ‘spacious enough to lug all our commodities’ — enough? Probably not.

Of course, this comes with its exceptions.

 

 

Danse Lente is the new handbag label that has graced the arms of many fashion street style stars during the AW’18 fashion weeks. Inspired by architectural and atypical structural forms, its bags are unconventional to say the least. More importantly, it looks roomy enough for us ‘ordinary girls’ to covet it as our everyday bag.

Helmed by British designer Youngwon Kim, the brand was launched a little under a year ago. Its name means “slow dancing” in French, which is ironic considering how quickly it took for it to have waltzed its way into the hearts of fashion darlings.

Some of the most prominent Danse Lente’s designs which were seen at fashion week consist of the Lilou, a curved-shape bag with an eccentric amorphous top handle, and the Phoebe, an accordian-style flap bag. The Johnny shoulder bag, a clean hexagonal bag with an exaggerated D-ring and a wide chunky strap, also had its time of day while on the arms of fashion girls like Buying Director of Mytheresa Tiffany Hsu, former fashion editor Pandora Sykes and Net-a-Porter’s fashion director Lisa Aiken.

We appreciate how luxe-looking these bags look —  and to make things better, they all cost less than S$1,000.

Danse Lante’s bags are available for pre-order at Moda Operandi and Luisaviaroma and for purchase at Farfetch and Net-a-Porter (you’d have to be quick on your toes though, they’re selling out fast the last time we checked). If you’re not sure about which of the many options to get for yourself, check out our top 5 picks here.

 

 

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