On the handwoven raffia basket, the four things that lived inside it, and the long lunches that followed.
I bought it in late April, before I'd been anywhere that needed it. That is, I think, the way most good summer purchases happen — you imagine the long lunch first and let the bag come second.
The handles are real leather, not the plasticked kind that goes shiny in the rain. The weave is tight enough that nothing falls through, which sounds obvious but is more rare than it should be. It holds a paperback, a 5ml perfume, a pair of tortoiseshell sunglasses, and a tinted lip oil — that's it, that's the entire summer's portable life.
— paperback, perfume, sunglasses, lip oil. that's the list. shop the bag →
The aesthetic point about a basket bag is that it is not working. There is no organising compartment, no zipped pocket, no laptop sleeve. It refuses to multitask, and I think this is the entire reason it photographs the way it does. The bag's only job is to be carried; the bag's only message is "today, nothing pressing."
The price is between ₹1,400 and ₹2,400 on Amazon India, depending on the day and the leather hardware. I bought the slightly more expensive one with the woven-in pocket on the inside, which I have never used.
shop the raffia basket on amazon india →
The compliments came — somewhere between Pondicherry and a Sunday lunch in Bombay — in a steady, casual stream. "Where's the bag from?" became a sentence I heard often enough that I started telling people the truth (Amazon, ₹1,800) and watching the small surprise. Quiet luxury is, sometimes, just being honest about where you found it.
(For the US readers asking how we paid for the Capri week the bag came home from: Amex Platinum Membership Rewards transferred 1:1 into Marriott Bonvoy. The current 175,000-point welcome offer is enough for 5-7 nights at a Cat-5 hotel — which is, roughly, a week somewhere worth photographing.)
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