How Beat-Up Bags Became a Luxury Status Symbol

One day, stylist and writer Amanda Lee Burkett hopes to add a luxury watch to her wardrobe. But when she’s ready to make the purchase, she doesn’t plan to head to the Cartier maison on Fifth Avenue to purchase a brand-new model, but instead, to buy one that already has a few scratches and dings.

“New out of the box comes off completely differently. It’s a little ‘born yesterday.’ You want the thing so you buy the thing,’” she said. “No. You have to buy the rarest version of the thing so someone can’t just go and buy it. Spending more won’t get you wear-in.”

For a rising cohort of shoppers, imperfections are not only no longer a dealbreaker, they’re desirable. There’s an increased cachet associated with carrying a bag or wearing a jacket that looks “lived-in” (whether they were the ones to live in it or not), inheriting a piece or finding it vintage — rather than buying retail — is becoming fashion’s ultimate status symbol.

“Designer bags are meant to be worn not worshipped,” Kit Keenan, influencer and daughter of New York designer Cynthia Rowley, said in a TikTok last month, showing off her softened and scuffed Chanel bag in the back of a taxi (she’s had it for years, purchased on The RealReal). A chorus of agreements filled the comments, with one putting it: “when I see a pristine Birkin I basically cringe.”

As luxury’s aggressive price hikes have edged out wide swaths of consumers, secondhand shopping has gone from niche to the primary way many people buy fashion. On sites like TheRealReal, Vestiaire, eBay, 1stDibs as well as local boutiques, they’re more likely to score a deal or find a piece that isn’t already ubiquitous.

Social media has made fashion and shopping more broadly accessible but also more homogenous. Influencers broadcast everything they buy to their hordes of followers, purchases are just a click away. The thrill of hunting down something special and specific, wear and tear and all, meanwhile, implies a level of knowledge and sophistication.

“In a world where people are just linking things and you can buy and copy the exact outfit someone has online, or someone’s style to a T, having things no one else can have because you’ve worn them in, in your own way makes it all the more luxurious,” Keenan said.

At handbag resale platform Fashionphile, searches for patinaed (a word used to describe the natural sheen and darkening over time on some leathers and metals) handbags are up 39 percent, while sales of pre-worn leather goods have grown 15.2 percent year on year. The RealReal has seen substantial momentum for items that fall under its recently introduced ‘as is’ categorisation, particularly among Gen-Z and Millennials. The aesthetic was even present on September’s Spring/Summer 2026 runways: there were slouchy 2.55 bags at Chanel and pre-patinaed galleria bags at Prada.

Though it’s a particular cohort — younger shoppers and tastemaker types — driving demand for bruised bags, the trend has wider implications for the luxury market. While the impulse signals affinity for timeless items that stand the test of time, it severs the traditional link between brands and shoppers and asserts taste as more than just buying the right bag.

“People don’t want to look like they’ve just been buying a bunch of stuff with no purpose or meaning,” said Kristen Naiman, chief brand officer at The RealReal. “There’s a subtext with something worn that’s like ‘I’m not just consuming this and spitting it out.”

The Rise of the Beat-up, ‘Birkinified’ Bag

The beat-up bag movement has a few famous flagbearers.

Aughts-era paparazzi photos of The Row founders Mary-Kate and Ashely Olsen carrying aggressively used Hermès Birkin and Kelly or wine-stained Balenciaga city bags still percolate online. And of course, the Birkin bag’s namesake Jane Birkin’s own bag — the original of which sold at auction for €8.6 million ($10.1 million) earlier this year — was distinctly weathered.

Those have served as inspiration for this latest generation of consumers. On TikTok, people have taken to “Jane Birkinfying” their bags with charms and stickers. The most extreme even stretch out and jump on their new Hermés in her honour.

But the primary driver of this behaviour is wanting something that feels more unique.

“Clients don’t want something new, but something that looks like it’s their own. Having the imperfection itself has become more desirable,” said Erica Wright, founder of Sourcewhere, a platform that connects shoppers with sourcers to find hard-to-get pieces. She added that increasingly, people are specifically requesting items with scratches or even bags with other peoples’ initials (common on Hermès bags from the 1950s to 1970s).

“That detail then becomes a talking point, it’s a story,” said Wright.

It’s a mindset that is spreading around the globe. Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of fashion and handbags, said that while vintage pieces have long had an appeal in the US and Europe, sales have started to pick up in Asia, particularly Hong Kong, where it was less “conventional or accepted to have an older bag.” As well, people are buying those special vintage items with the intent of actually incorporating them into their wardrobes, not just displaying them.

“There is now an appeal for any piece with a strong story,” said Halimi. “It’s engaging and appealing.”

Scratches as Status Symbols

Beyond the personalisation aspect, there are practical reasons, too, why shoppers are seeking out used bags.

For one, unless you’re eyeing an ultra-rare piece, one with imperfections tends to be less expensive. On The RealReal, 88 percent of shoppers who filtered to “fair” or “as is” conditions organised the page by price from low-to-high, suggesting they are more cost sensitive. Naiman says some people prefer it because they don’t feel so precious about keeping it pristine. Worn items are also much easier to style with your own clothes, because they don’t attract as much attention or stand out as much as one that’s crisp and new, said Burkett.

Desire to be (or be perceived as) thoughtful about consumption and own something singular and of quality are drivers of the trend. The bags that patina best tend to be in expensive leathers such as lambskin and box leather; and the phrase patina itself suggests the item collects value over time.

At the other end, after the reign of “quiet luxury” and “steal wealth” online for the past few years, it’s linked to a wider desire to convey affluence. A beat up bag is loaded with implications: that the wearer doesn’t care about ruining it because they can buy another, or that they didn’t buy it at all — they inherited it.

Plus, in the age of the dupe, it offers an antidote: a Birkin or a Margaux can be faked but the subtle scratches, fades and bend put on quality leather over time can’t.

“If you have a bag that has your own wear and tear and stories attached to it, no one can dupe that,” Keenan said.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on 2/12/25 to correct the description of resale platform Fashionphile.