What: Selfridges' director of accessories, Sara Wong, says the handbag hall "can no longer simply be a collection of the most prestigious logos," as spend shifts toward curation, novelty and diversified accessory categories.

Why it is important:  It's a direct buying-floor implication for department stores: as broad-based demand for any major logo launch weakens, the accessories hall's value shifts from prestige-brand density to editorial curation — a change in what buyers should prioritise, not just how they market it.

Sara Wong, director of accessories at Selfridges and its ReSelfridges resale business, describes the handbag category as more selective and fragmented than a few years ago: customers are still buying, but the purchase is more considered, with greater scrutiny on price, craftsmanship and design longevity. Spend is migrating into belts, eyewear, jewelry and small leather goods, where entry prices are lower and the product can feel more immediate. Wong calls this "fatigue with repetition" rather than handbag fatigue — another iteration of an established silhouette or logo is no longer enough to create urgency.

While major luxury maisons still dominate on recognition and reach, contemporary luxury, independent labels and direct-to-consumer brands now have more room to establish credibility, and customers increasingly mix high and low pieces. Wong reads recent leather-goods hires — Marco De Vincenzo at Givenchy, Johnny Coca at Saint Laurent — as brands acknowledging the need to reenergise their accessory propositions with a stronger creative voice.

For the second half of 2026, Wong expects selective rather than broad-based recovery, driven by limited editions, personalisation, exclusive colourways and storytelling-led activations, with Selfridges staying disciplined on inventory while giving more space to genuine newness.

IADS Notes: Selfridges has already applied this curation-over-breadth logic to another accessory-adjacent category: its refurbished Oxford Street fragrance hall trades assortment size for nearly 50 established and niche houses, more than 30 of them exclusive, positioned as a destination for discovery rather than a full-catalogue offer (BeautyInc, February 2026). The same logic is playing out in Paris, where Galeries Lafayette and La Samaritaine have moved their beauty departments away from maximising brand count toward curated, experiential selection to compete with specialty and digital channels (BoF, March 2026). The migration of spend into adjacent accessory categories is also visible beyond department-store curation choices: Magasin du Nord took a 60% stake in the Copenhagen eyewear brand MessyWeekend to capture Gen Z demand directly, treating an accessory category as an investment opportunity rather than just a buying decision (Via Ritzau, September 2025).

How Selfridges is navigating a shifting, 'fragmented' handbag market