Earlier this week, I was entertaining a self gifted push present for my second born. I found myself clicking around the Louis Vuitton website and searching for Alma, Sac Plat, and Epi. I eventually ended up navigating away from the luxury brand website as I have shopped, purchased, and subsequently analyzed every style that I love. (And yes, a healthy baby is gift enough!)
But not before discovering the reimagining of two iconic Louis Vuitton styles. Could it be that the brand finally moving away from the ever-ubiquitous gawdawful Neverfull?
Effing finally.
the alma
I began craving this exact Alma during the pandemic of 2020. One morning that summer, in an effort to avoid the Metro, I walked from the 1100 block to the 7200 block of Wisconsin pushing the stroller, in order to pick up a new laptop from the office. Yes, from Georgetown to Bethesda! And what a sweaty walk that was.
Along the way, I threw a large blanket over the stroller (our method for masking baby) and took pit stops at the Tenleytown Target for emergency formula, and the Friendship Heights Neiman Marcus (RIP) and Saks Fifth Avenue to escape the heat. At the latter, I stopped off at the Louis Vuitton shop-in-shop and considered the Carry It in Monogram and Alma PM in Ebene Damier in person. While I did not buy either that day, I did order the latter on the back end of the year before a price hike.
Why do I love the Alma PM? Though its status as an LV icon style, it has never been an overwhelmingly popular bag. The structure and size of the PM option allows it to be worn for a plethora of occasions from work to an evening out. I refrain from carrying it to the gym and in any instance I am one-on-one with the Pamper Pirate. (No strap on a top handle bag equates to being down to one hand for toddler-wrangling.)
My only complaint about the Alma PM is that at my height of over six feet, I could have stood to gone to the GM without it looking out of proportion. At the time, the GM was only available in the Monogram, of which I was not and am still not interested. Since then, the Alma selection has expanded primarily into the smaller, BB and Nano, varieties but recently, skipping over the GM to mega sizes. Trunks, travel, and backpack variations have joined the Alma lineup.
This Vermillon Red Epi leather Alma immediately caught my eye. While it is marketed as a travel bag, it measures in at 25.2 inches long by 16.5 inches high by 8.7 inches wide. This Alma does come with a strap, great for toting through the airport or Amtrak station, if you can get around advertising that you are carrying Louis Vuitton luggage. On that note, I would prefer the bag sans the white branding… Anyone else feel like it cheapens the bag?
the sac plat
Thanks to a vintage episode of Will & Grace in which Joan Collins played the character of a Louis Vuitton-toting interior designer, I was obsessed with the Sac Plat for the longest time. Unfortunately, by the time I took note, the Sac Plat had long gone out of production. Naturally, the scarcity of the bag made me want it all the more. The similarity in shape was part of the reason I had to check out the Carry It in Monogram. Albeit the new style was not exactly what I hoped for and as such, I refrained from making that purchase. For the same reasons I love the Alma, how the structure makes this style the 180 degree opposite from the Neverfull, I love the Sac Plat.
Eventually, while I was in Kazakhstan, my son was napping and my spidey senses activated. Previously when I got a spidey sense, it was because the (OG-sans gold chain) Pochette Accessories in Monogram canvas was restocked. After checking on my son, I navigated to the Louis Vuitton website and searched Sac Plat. Sure enough, a PM size had rolled out, in addition to the BB version which will simply never be large enough to carry all my essentials and my dad issues. I hit order on that bag so quick, I barely considered how many of my post-tax work hours would be required to buy the bag.
While I adore my Sac Plat PM and more broadly, my very curated Louis Vuitton collection and do not feel the pressing need to add to it, I still scope out the Sac Plat selection. The size and proportions of the Sac Plat NV leather iteration made an impression upon me and though it is embossed leather, I feel like the branding is less obvious than that of the above Alma.
