The Basket Bag in Fall

Jane Birkin carried a basket the way most women carry a black leather bag: with everything.

She wore hers with jeans and dresses, knitwear and long coats. She took it through airports, around Paris, and out at night, long before the Hermès bag bearing her name became one of fashion’s most recognizable objects. The basket was not reserved for holidays or warm weather. It was simply the bag she carried.

We tend to give the basket bag a much shorter season than it deserves. It appears with linen and is often put away after the last apple-picking weekend. Yet with wool, suede, and dark denim, it no longer reads as a vacation bag. The rough weave looks beautiful against heavier fall fabrics, making the bag stand out without looking out of place.

For Fall 2026, Tory Burch carried basket bags straight into cooler weather, pairing them with Shetland knits and corduroy. The styling treated the basket as an instinctive choice rather than a seasonal one. It wasn’t a summer bag reworked for fall, just a basket carried with fall clothes.

A long wool coat with a basket is one of my favorite combinations. I would add an old pair of jeans and riding boots, though the bag looks just as good with a dark knit dress or a jacket over a white shirt. Natural fibers are easy with the deeper colors of fall. Red may be one of the best.

The basket itself can change with the weather. Once coats come out, I’m drawn to a firmer shape, sturdy handles, and leather trim. Soft raffia can continue through September, but I prefer something more substantial later in the season.

My friend Heidi Wynne makes my favorite basket bags, and I have collected hers for years. Her deep olive-green mini raffia bag is beautiful for fall with a gray cable knit, chocolate suede jacket, dark denim, or a camel coat. Deep olive pairs as easily as brown with fall clothes, without requiring the rest of the outfit to match. Its compact top-handle shape also reads more like a handbag than a market tote. For those who carry more, the larger leather-handled version pictured above works just as well; the longer straps fit over a sweater or coat, and the dark woven bands suit the season.

The Loewe Basket Bag remains a useful reference for carrying the style year-round. Its shape and leather trim are the point: both give the basket enough definition to work as easily with a wool coat as it does with a cotton dress.

I wouldn’t build the outfit around a basket or repeat the idea elsewhere. Pick it up in the same way you would reach for a leather bag and leave it at that, and I say this as a lifelong handbag obsessive: a basket should not be kept immaculate. The softened weave, darkened handles, and slightly misshapen form keep it from looking decorative. Birkin’s looked better for having been carried hard. Repetition, not rarity, made it iconic.

It can go out at night, too. With double denim, suede, or a long coat, a basket settles easily into fall. Birkin carried hers as if changing bags for dinner had never occurred to her. Beside linen, it reads summer; beside suede and denim, it takes on a different character.

I’m increasingly reluctant to assign everything in a wardrobe to a strict season. A shell necklace can be worn over wool, and a basket can be carried with a coat. Most things become more useful once we stop limiting where they belong.

In June, a basket bag is an obvious styling choice. With a suede jacket or a red wool coat in November, the contrast catches the eye.

The season changes; the basket carries on.