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, dresses, knitwear, and long coats, carrying it around Paris from day into night. This was long before the Hermès bag bearing her name became one of fashion’s most recognizable objects. Birkin never treated the basket as a holiday bag. It was simply what 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.

As a lifelong handbag obsessive, I do love a basket bag that shows its age. The leather handles darken and the weave softens, much like the suede jackets I love wearing and seeing them with.

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.

Once the coats come out, I prefer baskets with sturdier weaves, firm handles, and leather trim. They sit beautifully against the weight of wool, suede, and dark denim. I usually 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 military-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 top-handle shape also reads more like a handbag than a market tote. For those who carry more, the larger version works just as well; the longer straps fitting over a burgundy sweater or coat.

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. Repetition, not rarity, made it iconic.

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.