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Since I first wrote about my obsession with the Balenciaga Motorcycle bag two years ago, I’ve been hoping, wishing, praying to see the ’00s It bag come back in a big way. The easy-to-wear, logoless bag has a relaxed structure that can not only withstand scuffs but is made to endure and look great with them. Everyone had it when it was released in 2001 during Nicolas Ghesquière’s tenure at the house. Former reality television star Nicole Richie had every candy-colored iteration, and the freakishly elegant French editor Emmanuelle Alt was often spotted clutching her black one. And now it’s back.
I played a bit of chic-ified Where’s Waldo? this past New York Fashion Week, starting with fellow fashion editor Nikki Ogunnaike. She knows I’m a diehard for the bag and sent me a selfie from Rebag in SoHo, wearing a tiny candy red version slung across her body. The bag popped against her green Tzar shirt, polished Levi’s trousers, and Celine loafers. “You influenced me,” she wrote. “I loved the gold hardware.”
As I headed around more shows, I kept seeing the tough little bag styled in different ways. On two separate occasions, I ran into writer Taylore Scarabelli, one of the best dressers in the city. Unlike Ogunnaike, who has a more modern sensibility, Scarabelli is plucked out of a lip-lined noughties dreamland and dresses as such. I first spotted her at the Bevza show at Spring Studios, wearing a bold-shouldered Escada leather coat, a black Rick Owens dress, and Nicolas Ghesquière–era Balenciaga boots. She could have been a gallery girl extra in 2001’s Kissing Jessica Stein. Two days later, I saw her at Puppets and Puppets in a colorful vintage Vivienne Tam slip skirt and light green sleeveless top with blue Prada kitten heels, looking like the main character in 2002’s The Sweetest Thing. Both times, she carried that Balenciaga Motorcycle bag. It lazily dangled on her upturned wrist as if she were saying: What the fuck do you want? Scarabelli, who bought her bag last winter, swears by it because of its size and utility. “I love it because it fits a book and I can throw it on the sidewalk when I’m eating. It looks even better when it is beat up and dirty,” she says. “But the best part is the bitchy little mirror it comes with...it’s perfect for subtly reapplying lip gloss.”
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On the fifth day, uptown at the Batsheva show at Serendipity3, I ran into Sam Adler, a former Vogue editor who has dragged her toddler-size navy Balenciaga Motorcycle bag around since she bought it on eBay in 2017. With me was photographer and James Veloria shopgirl Aidan Doyle, who also had a black version stuffed to the brim like a diaper bag. (Doyle, who was two years old when the bag debuted in 2001, also has a burnt orange version.) I snapped a photo of Doyle and Adler lightly touching their bags together as if they were kissing.
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Finally, on the last day of NYFW, I ran into Irina Shayk’s stylist, Marc Eram, at the Puppets and Puppets show. He has the crème de la crème of Balenciaga Motorcycle bags—a tropical turquoise version—and wore his with a black T-shirt, pinstriped button-down, jeans, and sneakers. He also just scored a lavender one on The RealReal. “I’m bringing them back if it’s the last thing I do,” he told me. Godspeed.
