I rarely regret selling a handbag because usually by the time I’m ready to sell it, the bag has gone unused for quite some time. But of course there’s always an exception to the rule, and for me the exception is the Celine Medium Box Bag. Once in awhile I find myself wistfully thinking “I could really use that bag right now.” I originally purchased the bag back in 2015 through Fashionphile (my favorite consignment site) at a price that is less than what they are selling for now used. Yep, can you believe this bag is just as pricey if not pricier 4 years later?! Talk about holding its value (also I know with the end of the Phoebe Philo era, all great Celine classics are going up in price).
But just look at that beautiful light blue color:
The calfskin leather of the box bag was surprisingly durable, even though it was such a light color. I had it for several years and by the time I sold it there were only one or two light scratches. There’s no color transfer and no major gouges, despite my usual roughness with bags. The leather held up beautifully.
The clip closure is relatively easy to use (and not as bad as say the closure for the micro belt bag, which was always a pain). The shoulder strap is adjustable and pretty easy to adjust (it was like one of those clip mechanisms you find on belts). The inside is subdivided into three main compartments which made organization easy. One of the compartments was zippered and a tad smaller than the other two. You can’t hold a lot in each compartment since the inside of the bag isn’t as roomy as you would thing. I would be able to hold my wallet in one compartment, my phone and keys in another, and sunglasses and some lip balm in the third. But it could hold the essentials easily enough.
So why did I end up selling it? Well first of all the bag is not light. The thick calfskin leather with the all the compartments ends up weighing down the bag even when empty. Also I don’t usually carry boxy bags as my everyday bag. My ideal everyday bag is Celine’s soft cube bag (reviewed here), so I only ended up carrying the box bag on date nights or special occasions.
However hindsight is 20/20 and what I really should have done was sell one of my Chanel bags (similarly boxy and only used for special occasions) and kept this one. Ah well, sometimes there’s just a bag that gets away. But if I were to seriously repurchase this (and I still might in a more neutral color because it’s such a classic!), my go to shop would of course be Fashionphile (their selection of Celine box bags here) or TheRealReal (their selection of box bags here).
Do you guys ever have bags or items of clothing you regret selling? What were they?
And if you’re interested, here are all my other Celine bag reviews.
{February update with the Celine Classic Teen Box: I also purchased this in late late December after seeing the Celine Triomph Teen Bag at the Celine store in Hawaii (and not purchasing it). I loved the size of it, and it reminded me of the Celine Classic Box but it was lighter since the Triomph had one less compartment (as compared the the medium Box that I once had). But in the end I couldn’t pull the trigger because of 1) the price (even with the Hawaii price of being $300 less than retail, with tax it was going to be just under $4000 and that’s how much I paid for my new Chanel Classic many years ago 😱) and 2) I’m just not 100% about the new Celine clasp hardware with the two C’s (to me it screams Hedi Slimane Celine and I’m pretty much a Phoebe Philo loyalist even though I am a huge fan of the Tabou bag above and that’s a Hedi era style). So I went with a secondhand Classic Celine box (from Fashionphile) in the new-ish Teen size. Unfortunately the leather on the box is super stiff and not forgiving to aging. The leather was quite creased, to the point of almost cracking in a year or so. So back it went. Oh but if you’re interested to see what fits (and also what I’m talking about on the leather) you can see my video of the bag in my Insta story highlights—just scroll to the end).}