When You're Ready for a Change From a Basket Bag, Carry the Elegant Alternative Fashion Experts Are Wearing This Summer
Leave the kitchen-sink tote at home for a patterned or satin pouch
If your holiday bag is your work bag, you're doing life wrong. A dramatic statement but one that is borne out by facts. Just how are you supposed to relax and unburden yourself if you're quite literally carrying the weight of the world (and the work that waits for you at home) on your shoulders? The answer is to go for a diametrically-opposed accessory. And what tastemakers have chosen as very "summer 2026" is the drawstring bag.
Prada SS26
It's this season's version of a clutch bag or evening purse, prioritising a statement exterior (think beads, patterns and luxurious fabrications) over a spacious interior. Having said that, these pouches can fit everything you need to stroll down to your local trattoria (Prada's has a fairly lofty height of 35cm if you've taken to carrying around a wooden fan alongside your essentials).
Adwoa Aboah
Rather like this summer's trend for novelty bags, a drawstring pouch has an "out-of-office" charm that you can't quite emulate with a leather tote or bowling bag. Size definitely comes into play here. See Marianne Smyth's grey tank, silk chartreuse trousers and minimal flip-flops? An imposingly-large handbag would have taken over, muddling the simplicity of such an outfit. Casa Allyon's grey suede pouch, however, doesn't muddle anything. It's chic, lightweight and impressively carefree.
A drawstring pouch can also be carefree but with dressy attitude. When Florrie Thomas visited The Lakes by YOO, a luxury sustainable hotel located in the Cotswolds, she styled her knit dress (a ripe shade of tomato) with a peach drawstring bag to pose on the wooden deck.
Marina Zholobova
Another approach is a pouch with one handle that can be threaded through the other (Violetta Fainšil's fringed bag added extra dimension, not to mention interest, to a semi-sheer dress on her holiday in Marseille).
The best thing about a drawstring bag—or satin pouch—is that, contrary to popular opinion, you don't have to retire it once you're back at work. Marina Zholobova might have carried hers for a wellness-resort stay, but her outfit had "back to school" energy that's perfectly in step with September (a shirt, a knee-length skirt and point-toe pumps). You might have to slip your laptop into a slim leather tote, and surrender to carrying two bags on your commute, but it's worth it to have a hint of holiday about your person.
The Best Drawstring Bags
