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Soft Margaux vs the Original Margaux at The Row, Spec by Spec Ask five different people how the Margaux and the Soft Margaux differ and you will hear five confident, conflicting answers. The confusion is understandable, because the two bags share a name, a silhouette and a set of signature buckles, and because the shopping…
Soft Margaux vs the Original Margaux at The Row, Spec by Spec
Ask five different people how the Margaux and the Soft Margaux differ and you will hear five confident, conflicting answers. The confusion is understandable, because the two bags share a name, a silhouette and a set of signature buckles, and because the shopping situation around them changed sharply in 2025. What follows is specification-led rather than impression-led — measurements, materials, closures, linings and observed prices, placed against each other line by line. Everything here comes from what the brand states on its product pages and from prices observed in the market in 2026, which are observations rather than an official price list. Any figure that is not reliably documented is flagged as such rather than guessed, as the Margaux is the single most misquoted bag in the label’s catalogue. In short, the Soft is not a cheaper or lazier Margaux; it is the more equipped of the two. The long version follows.
Two Bags Sharing a Name Through a Complicated Year
The brand built its handbag reputation on the original Margaux, an unlined-looking tote whose structure comes from leather thickness and panel shaping in place of stiffeners. The Soft Margaux appeared as a related yet separately specified bag, with construction details and product pages of its own. During 2025 the original was withdrawn from third-party retailers, and the brand’s own webstore now leads with the Soft Margaux and the Margaux Shoulder rather than the original. Widely reported as discontinued, it has never been officially confirmed as such by the brand, and the distinction is not pedantry when you are deciding what to pay on the secondary market. What that means in practice is simple: the Soft Margaux is buyable new, and the original is a resale proposition. The comparison is thus between a current product and an archive one, and that st laurent changes the weight the specification differences should carry.
The Specifications, Side by Side
Isolating the features the Soft version adds and checking them one at a time is the cleanest way to see the difference. There are five in total, and together they change how the bag behaves in daily use rather than how it looks from across a street. Protective metal feet hold the base away from the ground. An interior toggle closure gives the open-top shape a way to shut. Belted side gussets make the profile variable, cinched or released. Adding a zip pocket and card slots turns a deep cavity into organised storage. The table sets these out with the observed 2026 figures for the versions sold new.
| Feature | Soft Margaux 10 and 12 | Original Margaux |
|---|---|---|
| Protective metal feet | Fitted as standard | Not part of the specification |
| Interior toggle closure | Present | Absent from the specification |
| Belted side gussets | Included | Not part of the specification |
| Zip pocket | On the 12 | Not in the specification |
| Card slots | One on the 10 and two on the 12 | Absent from the specification |
| Observed 2026 price | $3,650 and $4,350 | Resale market only |
Exterior Materials and Linings
The Soft Margaux 10 and 12 are each listed as 100 percent calfskin in a matte grained finish, with cotton herringbone lining in both. The lining choice reveals plenty about the brand’s priorities: a cotton herringbone interior is a textile decision, not a branding one, and it holds shape without introducing the plastic feel of a coated logo jacquard. The Margaux Shoulder 12 goes a step further, lining the bag in 100 percent lambskin — softer, more easily marked and considerably more expensive to work with. Across the wider family the exteriors include grained calfskin, saddle calfskin, suede, canvas paired with leather, and nylon, so a Margaux is not automatically a smooth-leather bag. Made in Italy is stated on the brand’s own product pages for the Soft Margaux 10 and 12 and for the Margaux Shoulder 12. The suede and canvas versions read differently in the hand and, importantly, perform differently on resale.
The Hardware, the Buckles and the Handles
The Soft Margaux runs palladium-plated hardware, finished matte rather than polished, consistent with the rest of the collection. What signs any Margaux is the pair of adjustable side buckles; on genuine examples they are engraved, and so are the base feet where feet are fitted. The buckles are functional, not decorative, because they are what allows the belted gussets to change the width of the bag. A 5-inch handle drop is common to the Soft Margaux 10 and 12, which puts it in hand-carry or crook-of-the-elbow territory rather than shoulder territory, and both include a removable shoulder strap to cover the difference. The Margaux Shoulder 12 drops that arrangement for elongated tubular handles and narrowed gusseted side panels, designed from the outset to sit under the arm. Where the requirement is one The Row bag that goes hands-free without a strap, the Shoulder is the answer, not the Soft.
What the Size Numbers Actually Tell You
The number in the name is just the width of the bag in inches, which makes this family easier to navigate than most. The Soft Margaux 10 measures 10 x 7 x 7.5 inches, a genuinely compact bag packing unusual depth for its footprint. The Soft Margaux 12 runs 12 x 9 x 7.5 inches, same depth with two inches more width and two more of height, and that is the size most buyers choose for daily use. The Margaux Shoulder 12 measures 14.75 x 9 x 5 inches, so despite carrying a 12 in its name it is the widest and the shallowest of the three, because the number refers to the bag’s stated size rather than its maximum external span. There is a Soft Margaux 15 in circulation, and Selfridges has carried a Margaux 17 in a leather-and-canvas execution. Retail prices for those two cannot be verified, so take any quoted figure as an asking price rather than a documented one.
What Each Costs, and What Resale Is Doing
In observed 2026 market pricing the Soft Margaux 10 sits at $3,650 and the Soft Margaux 12 at $4,350, with the Margaux Shoulder 12 at $4,900. Those figures place the whole family in the collection’s top band, alongside the India and Agnes top handles and the Marlo totes. The secondary market picture is an unusual one: the Rebag CLAIR 2025 report recorded the Margaux Tote at 107 percent value retention, inside a brand-level figure of 97 percent that lifted the label into the report’s unicorn tier for the first time. Softer secondary figures point in the same direction: the Margaux is reported to sell frequently at around 40 percent above retail, Fashionphile resale is reported up roughly 44 percent year on year, and The RealReal reports pre-owned Margaux sales averaging about 15 percent over original retail. A major resale authenticator puts new Margaux bags in the $5,000 to $9,000 range, a useful sanity check, since anything advertised in the hundreds is almost certainly counterfeit. None of this is investment advice, and it is worth remembering that canvas, nylon and seasonal-colour versions discount rather than appreciate.
Which Version to Buy
If what you want is the bag you can actually buy new, with a warranty of availability and the fuller specification, the Soft Margaux is the straightforward answer. Choose the 10 if you carry little and want the shape at its most sculptural, and the 12 if you want a working bag, since the second card slot and the zip pocket only appear at that size. Take the Margaux Shoulder 12 if you carry under the arm rather than in the hand, since its tubular handles and narrowed gussets are built for exactly that. Seek out the original on resale only if you specifically want the archive version and you are comfortable buying without metal feet, a toggle closure or interior organisation. Whichever one you pick, note that the brand operates no public authenticity coding system at all, so verification rests on stitching, hand-painted edges, stamp placement and the weight and finish of the hardware. If resale matters, buy black or neutral calfskin, and if it does not, buy whatever colour you like.
- Answer hand-carry or shoulder first of all, as it divides Soft from Shoulder immediately
- Size comes next: the 10 for occasion carry and the 12 for daily use
- Then choose material, mindful that canvas and seasonal colours discount on resale
- Only then consider an original on the secondary market