For the eco-conscious consumer, secondhand shopping is less of a trend and more a way of life — because buying thrifted pieces reduces textile waste, saves water and energy, and lowers our collective carbon footprint. And while the influx of digital thrifting platforms has made it remarkably easy to buy and sell pre-worn clothing and accessories, it can feel overwhelming to figure out what to buy and from where.
Enter: Holt Renfrew — the Canadian fashion and lifestyle retailer is rising to the occasion with its new Pre-Loved handbag category. Not only will shoppers be able to purchase designer designs, like Gucci, Saint Laurent, Dior, and Balenciaga, for a fraction of the price, but each piece is vetted with transparent quality reporting. That also means there’s no risk of counterfeit or mislabeled goods, as each purchase is guaranteed by Holt Renfrew to be 100% authentic.
And a new season obviously means a new (old) bag, which is why we rounded up the seven biggest handbag trends to help you anchor your Fall 2022 ‘fits. From the oversized silhouette to Barbiecore, click through to shop Holt Renfrew’s Pre-Loved line to get the look for less.
Oversized
Now that we’re (mostly) back at the office, it’s time to ditch that impractical (albeit, very cute) micro-bag and invest in one that can actually fit more than your phone (like your laptop, water bottle, and a paperback).
Our pick: This spacious Bottega Veneta bag that features the brand’s iconic woven leather detailing.
Bottega Veneta Pre-Loved Intrecciato Leather Bag, $, available at Holt Renfrew
Old Money
Impeccably tailored, classically elegant, and always discreet, the “old money aesthetic” that’s blowing up TikTok is all about minimalism, luxe fabrics, and fine details.
Our pick: This well-heeled Celine tote, with its leather and suede body and French-made craftsmanship.
Our love affair with the ‘80s is still going strong, with an emphasis on black latex, bold lines, and neon accents.
Our pick: This bold and brash leather satchel from Balenciaga.
Balenciaga Pre-Loved Ville Leather Satchel, $, available at Holt Renfrew
Embroidery
Embroidery has always been celebrated for its finely threaded designs, and it remains as a hallmark of a truly couture piece.
Our pick: This delicate floral saddle bag from Dior.
Dior Pre-Loved Mini Dior Oblique Floral Saddle Bag, $, available at Holt Renfrew
Sparkle & Shine
Stock up on body glitter and hair tinsel, since the Y2K-inspired sparkle trend is still going strong.
Our pick: This stunning patent leather wallet from YSL will deliver a tasteful sprinkle of glitz.
Saint Laurent Pre-Loved Glitter Patent Leather Wallet, $, available at Holt Renfrew
Barbiecore
There’s something unmistakably fearless about this season’s shade of pink — it’s bold, it’s unapologetic, it’s hot.
Our pick: This Balenciaga purse saturated in the unforgettable hue.
Balenciaga Pre-Loved Motocross Mini Neo Classic Leather Satchel, $, available at Holt Renfrew
Athluxury
Athleisure was so early pandemic — the fashion world has pivoted to “athluxury,” which is all about practical yet stylish sportswear with streamlined silhouettes that scream effortless chic.
Our pick: This little nylon number from Saint Laurent makes the leap from gym to drinks.
Saint Laurent Pre-Loved Nylon Bag, $, available at Holt Renfrew
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In a sea of social media sameness, it’s incredibly refreshing to scroll through content creator and model Simi Muhumuza’s Instagram and Tik Tok pages, where she goes by @simimoonlight. There, you’ll find a colorful mix of GRWM (Get Ready With Me) videos, Black-owned fashion, cultural commentary, personal reflections, and more recently, her Style Therapy series. A former psychology student, Muhumuza uses this series as a way to talk to her nearly 500,000-strong audience about everything from outfit repetition confidence to how style can help fuel your personal growth.
Muhumuza’s online presence is unique in more than one way. Her signature colorful style is apparent the moment you click on her page, but upon further inspection you’ll find a vulnerability that is hard to find on the Internet—especially in the content creator space. It’s an approach to social media that Muhumuza developed over time. “This past decade of being online has really helped me figure out what my personal boundary is when it comes to sharing and the details of what I share,” she tells Unbothered over Zoom. “I think I really found the perfect balance of being vulnerable, but also still withholding the more personal information for myself. People don’t need to know the details. They just need to know that it’s okay to feel this way despite whatever people might think your life is.”
Though it can be difficult to be vulnerable online, Muhumuza insists that it’s important to be transparent, and that doing so shouldn’t be viewed negatively. “It’s okay to have feelings,” she maintains. “It’s okay for people to know that you’re not okay, or it’s okay for people to know that you are okay. It’s okay to share your thoughts.”
As a self-proclaimed black and neutrals-wearing girlie, I looked on in amazement—and a little envy—when I first came across Muhumuza’s content last year. Her page was splattered with bold greens, fiery oranges, teals, pinks, yellows. Long boots and layers, corsets and curves. Curly red hair. It was LOUD, and without having yet met her, I knew it was totally ‘Simi’. That’s by design, and it’s a style approach that she hopes inspires her audience. “I have always been very anti-neutral because for me it almost feels like we’re consistently putting ourselves in this neutral space, almost to the point where we all have the same uniform,” she reflects. “I have always encouraged Black people to not wear the uniform. Don’t wear the uniform! It’s not you; it’s something for the sake of muting you, of putting you in a space where you’re malleable and digestible. To me, wearing color is the unmute button.”
To me, wearing color is the unmute button.
simi Muhumuza
Taking up space in the form of fashion isn’t a foreign concept for Black women, who have been on the forefront of trends since, well, forever. However, for people who prefer to play it safe with their style, pressing that unmute button can seem daunting. A neutral wardrobe can take guesswork out of dressing, but for those who are looking to experiment, Muhumuza has some great advice. “There are so many subtle ways to add color to your palette,” she points out. “It doesn’t have to be, you know, a rainbow dress. It can be a small accessory, it can be a bag, it can be glasses. Just adding it little by little into your closet can really help you build a relationship to color and also build a uniform that is not the same as everyone else’s.”
For anyone who has tried to be intentional about developing their own personal style, they know it’s much easier said than done. It’s difficult to ignore the one million suggestions of how one should look and dress, and figure out what you actually like. Muhumuza shares that her personal style only developed when she blocked out the noise. “I really had to go inward,” she confesses.
“I’m not really pressed about being the most fashionable, the most this, the most that, because it’s all so subjective. Being able to train myself to really value my own taste has helped so much with my confidence.”
That’s not to say that Muhumuza avoids trends entirely; she just makes them work for her – an endeavor that’s been healing in and of itself. “I did a Style Therapy reel on 2000s fashion and how it’s coming back. Being able to dress how my younger self wanted to dress but couldn’t [at the time] was such a healing process for me,” she shares. “It was such an inner child thing that I didn’t realize I needed until I was doing it.” As a full-figured woman, reclaiming styles intended for the thin beauty standard of the Y2K-era, and even today, was a crucial part of Muhumuza’s style journey. “It was important for me to learn that it’s not my body that needs manipulating; it’s the clothes that need manipulating. The clothes are meant to be the malleable thing,” she emphasizes. “It’ll be simple stuff, like, if a dress doesn’t fit that would be a part of a trend, I’ll make it into a shirt and I’ll layer it with something else. Or if a dress doesn’t fit the way I wanted to, I’ll make it into a skirt. There are so many different ways to manipulate clothing in ways that we don’t think about every day. That really helped me see my body in those trends.”
It was important for me to learn that it’s not my body that needs manipulating; it’s the clothes that need manipulating. The clothes are meant to be the malleable thing.
simi muhumuza
Muhumuza’s approach to fashion goes even deeper than feeling confident in her skin. “When you look at style as more than just putting clothes on and moreso figuring out who you are or who you want to be, it’s powerful. It can even be used as a manifestation tool,” she offers. “When I first started wearing clothes and sharing it publicly, I had no idea that my life would be what it is now. But I knew that every time I got a dress, I wanted to feel as though my life was where I wanted it to be. Whatever you want your life to look like, imagine what you would wear in that moment, and wear it. Even if you have to find a dupe of it, just wear the dupe. Do what it is that you need to do to have that self-image. And then the rest of the manifestation will come. At least for me, that’s how it happened.”
The recent Savage x Fenty model can definitely share a thing or two about manifestation and dressing for the life you want. After a reel of hers showcasing a stunning, form-fitting birthday dress and carefree enjoyment went viral, she was tapped to be a part of the latest campaign for Bad Gal Riri herself. “When I got [on set], I saw the art direction board. And they had a screenshot of me [from the reel] on the board and I was like, oh shit. This is for real. Y’all really handpicked me for this,” Muhumuza recounted. “Rihanna has really tried to push for inclusivity in this particular space in so many ways. I was honored to be a part of it.”
That representation is long needed, and the importance of being someone who showcases that is not lost on Muhumuza. “I’m really happy that the campaigns I’ve been in as a model have been for the sake of showing plus-size people that they, too, can be beautiful. They, too, can enjoy clothing, or lingerie, and feel sexy and empowered. I’m just very thankful and grateful for it.”
Ultimately, as her Style Therapy series and the way she lives her life shows, it all comes down to trusting herself. “I think the reason why I have been successful in this style pathway is because I just do me. I’m not trying to be anyone else. I look in the mirror and I feel good as myself with the things that I choose to wear. And that’s really all that matters to me.”
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Regardless of how much of a “creative genius” Kanye West believes himself to be, one thing is crystal clear: we really need to stop making excuses for his behavior. His latest antics took place at Paris Fashion Week during the last-minute exhibition of his Yeezy Season 9 collection. During the show, which started an hour and a half late — Kanye doesn’t do punctuality — he proudly showcased a statement t-shirt with the saying “White Lives Matter” splashed in bold letters across its back. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first instance of West using fashion to push a message that invalidates and perpetuates harmful anti-Black rhetoric. And knowing what we know about him, it won’t be the last. But it’s time to take a stand.
After Yeezy Season 9’s Paris debut, Vogue fashion editor and stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, who attended the show, shared constructive and thoughtful feedback about West’s collection. In her Instagram stories, she posted screenshots of a private conversation with a friend in which she tried to see the artistic point of view that West was attempting to convey through the collection. For all of her valiant efforts at understanding the rapper-turned-designer, Karefa-Johnson’s biggest takeaway from the event was that no matter which way West tried to spin it, his message was dangerous.
Kanye West’s attempts to shame Karefa-Johnson’s style were malicious, but beyond that, they simply weren’t true.
Venesa Coger
“He was trying to illustrate a dystopian world in the future when whiteness might become extinct or at least would be in enough danger to demand defense,” wrote Karefa-Johnson. “But the danger is that this very premise, the idea that white supremacy is in danger of extinction is what justifies mass incarceration, murder en masse, indeed even the advent of slavery.” In the next slide of her Instagram story, Karefa-Johnson reiterated that she was not justifying West’s irresponsible actions but condemning them. Although West may see his work as revolutionary, in reality, what he’s doing is nothing short of anti-Black violence. That phrase originated in response to BLM by white supremacist to overshadow the brutality and deaths of Black people. Like all art, fashion is subjective, and as a journalist in the industry, it’s well within Karefa-Johnson’s right to critique a collection — especially one that breathes life into harmful ideologies that directly affect Black people in real life.
As much as West would love to consider himself above everyone else and disregard critique of anything that he says or does, the truth is that he’s not beyond reproach. And for someone who acts like he’s beyond judgment, he cares a lot about what people think; that’s why it’s so common to see him lash out when public opinion isn’t in his favor. In a matter of hours, West took to his Instagram page to call out Karefa-Johnson in a since-deleted post. On his profile, he attacked and mocked the fashion journalist’s personal style to his 17.9 million followers, stating she is “not a fashion person.” “If you speak on Ye,” West captioned his cyberbullying, “Ima would speak on you.”
Following the widespread backlash against his actions, which included public declarations of support for Karefa-Johnson as well as vehement disapproval from West’s peers in the industry (Vogue also released a statement as well expressing their stand alongside Karefa-Johnson, who works for the outlet), West posted a picture of Karefa-Johnson again, claiming that the situation had been diffused. “I’m not letting people go to bed thinking I didn’t meet with Gabriella at 5pm today for 2 hours,” he wrote. “Then we went to dinner at Ferdie.”
The sad truth is that in this industry, you don’t see many Black folks (especially Black women) being given the opportunity to sit in the rooms that Karefa-Johnson is in or to do the things that she’s been able to do, regardless of their skill or ability.
Let West tell it, the beef has been squashed. Even if that’s true (doubtful), that doesn’t dissolve what Karefa-Johnson had to endure. She shared in another Instagram story last night that she’s “been through it!” She also wrote, “I will always speak my mind, and always try to honor my truth.” West left his comment section open for folks to make rude and disgusting comments about her appearance. His attempts to shame Karefa-Johnson’s style were malicious, but beyond that, they simply weren’t true. She is the epitome of a fashion person, even more so than West. Her resume speaks for itself; she’s been in this industry since 2009, working at Vogue, Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, and Garage. In 2020, the journalist was the first Black woman to style a Vogue cover. Her muse and model for the inaugural shoot was Paloma Elsesser, and after that, Karefa-Johnson also styled Vice President Kamala Harris, and has styled countless other covers since then.
The sad truth is that in this industry, you don’t see many Black folks (especially Black women) being given the opportunity to sit in the rooms that Karefa-Johnson is in or to do the things that she’s been able to do, regardless of their skill or ability. We’re so often told to be careful about the things that we say, that we can’t ruffle anyone’s feathers if we want to succeed in this business. Seeing West, an outsider who we’ve watched fight to get into this same elitist space, use his influence to bully and degrade someone who’s also beat the odds in fashion is frustrating — even though we should be fully accustomed to his frequent violations. But no more. “Genius” or not, we’re not going to sit quietly and watch this man initiate and allow a Black woman to be dogpiled on for having a valid opinion and concern.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Regardless of how much of a “creative genius” Kanye West believes himself to be, one thing is crystal clear: we really need to stop making excuses for his behavior. His latest antics took place at Paris Fashion Week during the last-minute exhibition of his Yeezy Season 9 collection. During the show, which started an hour and a half late — Kanye doesn’t do punctuality — he proudly showcased a statement t-shirt with the saying “White Lives Matter” splashed in bold letters across its back. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first instance of West using fashion to push a message that invalidates and perpetuates harmful anti-Black rhetoric. And knowing what we know about him, it won’t be the last. But it’s time to take a stand.
After Yeezy Season 9’s Paris debut, Vogue fashion editor and stylist Gabrielle Karefa-Johnson, who attended the show, shared constructive and thoughtful feedback about West’s collection. In her Instagram stories, she posted screenshots of a private conversation with a friend in which she tried to see the artistic point of view that West was attempting to convey through the collection. For all of her valiant efforts at understanding the rapper-turned-designer, Karefa-Johnson’s biggest takeaway from the event was that no matter which way West tried to spin it, his message was dangerous.
Kanye West’s attempts to shame Karefa-Johnson’s style were malicious, but beyond that, they simply weren’t true.
Venesa Coger
“He was trying to illustrate a dystopian world in the future when whiteness might become extinct or at least would be in enough danger to demand defense,” wrote Karefa-Johnson. “But the danger is that this very premise, the idea that white supremacy is in danger of extinction is what justifies mass incarceration, murder en masse, indeed even the advent of slavery.” In the next slide of her Instagram story, Karefa-Johnson reiterated that she was not justifying West’s irresponsible actions but condemning them. Although West may see his work as revolutionary, in reality, what he’s doing is nothing short of anti-Black violence. That phrase originated in response to BLM by white supremacist to overshadow the brutality and deaths of Black people. Like all art, fashion is subjective, and as a journalist in the industry, it’s well within Karefa-Johnson’s right to critique a collection — especially one that breathes life into harmful ideologies that directly affect Black people in real life.
As much as West would love to consider himself above everyone else and disregard critique of anything that he says or does, the truth is that he’s not beyond reproach. And for someone who acts like he’s beyond judgment, he cares a lot about what people think; that’s why it’s so common to see him lash out when public opinion isn’t in his favor. In a matter of hours, West took to his Instagram page to call out Karefa-Johnson in a since-deleted post. On his profile, he attacked and mocked the fashion journalist’s personal style to his 17.9 million followers, stating she is “not a fashion person.” “If you speak on Ye,” West captioned his cyberbullying, “Ima would speak on you.”
Following the widespread backlash against his actions, which included public declarations of support for Karefa-Johnson as well as vehement disapproval from West’s peers in the industry (Vogue also released a statement as well expressing their stand alongside Karefa-Johnson, who works for the outlet), West posted a picture of Karefa-Johnson again, claiming that the situation had been diffused. “I’m not letting people go to bed thinking I didn’t meet with Gabrielle at 5pm today for 2 hours,” he wrote. “Then we went to dinner at Ferdie.”
The sad truth is that in this industry, you don’t see many Black folks (especially Black women) being given the opportunity to sit in the rooms that Karefa-Johnson is in or to do the things that she’s been able to do, regardless of their skill or ability.
Let West tell it, the beef has been squashed. Even if that’s true (doubtful), that doesn’t dissolve what Karefa-Johnson had to endure. She shared in another Instagram story last night that she’s “been through it!” She also wrote, “I will always speak my mind, and always try to honor my truth.” West left his comment section open for folks to make rude and disgusting comments about her appearance. His attempts to shame Karefa-Johnson’s style were malicious, but beyond that, they simply weren’t true. She is the epitome of a fashion person, even more so than West. Her resume speaks for itself; she’s been in this industry since 2009, working at Vogue, Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, and Garage. In 2020, the journalist was the first Black woman to style a Vogue cover. Her muse and model for the inaugural shoot was Paloma Elsesser, and after that, Karefa-Johnson also styled Vice President Kamala Harris, and has styled countless other covers since then.
The sad truth is that in this industry, you don’t see many Black folks (especially Black women) being given the opportunity to sit in the rooms that Karefa-Johnson is in or to do the things that she’s been able to do, regardless of their skill or ability. We’re so often told to be careful about the things that we say, that we can’t ruffle anyone’s feathers if we want to succeed in this business. Seeing West, an outsider who we’ve watched fight to get into this same elitist space, use his influence to bully and degrade someone who’s also beat the odds in fashion is frustrating — even though we should be fully accustomed to his frequent violations. But no more. “Genius” or not, we’re not going to sit quietly and watch this man initiate and allow a Black woman to be dogpiled on for having a valid opinion and concern.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
