2024 is the year of East West bags – here's where to buy them

WORDS Jasmine Pirovic PHOTOGRAPHY Pinterest PUBLISHED Mon, 25 Mar 2024 - 2:59 pm

If there was one characteristic that defined handbags in 2023, it was that they swelled up and lost structure. Our favourite styles were bloated, big and capable of fitting all of our baggage (especially the emotional kind). As 2024 unfurls, it seems as though wide styles – known formally as East-West handbags – will become the year's trademark.

The design is given the name East-West for its horizontal shape. I like to imagine the handbag as the next size up from a continental wallet or "long lady wallet" as Liana Satenstein has dubbed it. There's something elegant about the shape – easily tucked under your arm like a clutch or grasped between a few fingertips. While the East-West handbag screams "person on a mission," it's less cumbersome than a carry-all tote like the ludicrously capacious handbag of Succession fame. One cannot fit a laptop in an East-West handbag, though they might carry a newspaper, a hairbrush, a wad of cash, a fan or mail.

However, recent updates on the East-West bag by Alaïa, Khaite or Jil Sander are slimmer than past variations, a riff on the tiny bag trend but with the exception of room to fit a tube of Pat McGrath lip gloss. Without further ado, find our round up of the best East-West bags you can buy right now, below.