By Fatima Garba

Timeless elegance characterizes the best bags for this season, whether through faraway inspiration, an era revisited, natural leather and graphic luxury skins, metallic details or the season’s dominant colours of black, grey and red. Think high style with fun finishing touches, as we celebrate the new-season trends.

TOP HANDLE BAGS

Whether you wear it at your elbow, or simply let your assistant tote it, the top handle is this season’s ladylike winner.

FRINGE BAGS

Fringe looks gorgeous this season in rainbow colours or the metallic versions at Diane Von Furstenberg (DVF), while it takes on a distinctively 1970s style at Tory Burch. We love the scattered fringe on suede at Christian Siriano, while it turns to futuristic clutches with metallic tassels at Badgley Mischka. Fancy flower fringes make their appearance with Monique Lhuillier, while we are full-fledged rodeo with the BCBG saddle bags on the runways.

FURRY MISCHIEF BAGS

We love seeing the furry pieces on the runways and now we get to enjoy it as a trend that we will most definitely be investing in once they become available to the general public. Pretty and fabulously furry, Topshop Unique, walks in with a rather lovely combination of colours and textures. Tiny and furry is what we see at Saint Laurent as well as the more cowhide version of Nina Ricci’s clutches.

FOOD SHAPED BAGS

This season,we saw the strawberry cream and sprinkle topped cake that the ladies on stage mistake for edible sustenance at Betsey Johnson. Kate Spade has a thing for peanuts though as we see on the runway show featuring a movie sized bag.

THE BUCKET BAG

The bucket bag is evolving, with inspired takes on the simple shape, done up with added rouching, asymmetrical shapes or embellishment.

CLUTCHES

Another common structure to the season’s handbags is the clutch, wherein there are no straps to hold onto or pull over the shoulder and you must keep your bag in hand at all times. Everything from the cupcakes to the face designed pieces, come in clutch looks while metallic comes into play at Badgley Mischka.

FANNY PACKS

A rather useful handbag design for the upcoming season really emphasizes the need for travel, as fanny packs that have been mightily revamped from the old days are spotted throughout, coming in furs and fringes, graphics or simple minimalism.

STRUCTURED SQUARE BAGS

One of the most common 2016 handbag trends seen on the runway is the structured bag, the one that is very clearly defined on all sides. Structured designs come in the guide of alligator skin rectangular pieces at Zimmermann, while we see House of Holland, Hill & Friends, Sophia Webster and Mary Katrantzou all have some rather spectacularly structured bags on display for the season.

MOBILE PHONE HANDBAGS

High fashion is embracing technology,your post-modern clutches are now equipped for your iPhone  5 and 6.

HALF MOON BAGS

Who does not love the half-moon trend out there? Victoria Beckham certainly is enamoured, so much so that her 2016 bags imitate the design with ease and gorgeous flow. This is expected to become the coming season’s new It bag that all the girls will be clamouring for, with the spacious feel and the very 1970s appeal.

METALLIC HANDBAGS

Silver is big this year. Shimmering silver with a futuristic appeal has been the main look that everything from clothing to shoes has taken on. So it makes sense that we will see them on the runways this 2016 ,handbags as well, a bit little more toned down. We see a whole lot of the metallic articulation at DVF.

BAGS WITH CHAIN STRAPS

Chain straps appeared as a trend last year and has continued this year.The featured favorite chains with fringe for example at DVF, or with oven shaped designs as seen at Betsey Johnson. Even the Jeremy Scott flowers have chains to hold on to.

GRAPHIC HANDBAGS

We see some very graphic colours, stripes and designs appearing on the the runways in 2016 for bags, versus the more muted we might like to carry on a daily basis. It is all about being sassy and fashion-savvy now, bold and beautiful and quite confident in your own style. We see some black white and yellow stripes appear on looped handle bags with chain straps at Stella McCartney, graphic chain looks against pale pink at Louis Vuitton, red and green against navy at Gucci, and blue and red colouring to match the clothing found at Marc Jacobs.