Longchamp’s Le Roseau is the it-girl bag of autumn

Looking around a London highstreet this summer, you could be forgiven for thinking you had teleported back to the ‘90s. The Euros is to thank for the return of the sports jersey à la Pamela Anderson, while festival season means TLC-coded sports bras and balloon pants can be seen far from the vast fields of Glastonbury. As for accessories, you’ll almost certainly spot at least one of Maison Longchamp’s Le Pliage bags resting on a tanned shoulder. A veritable contender for bag of the summer according to TikTok, Le Pliage embodies the understated French style originally attributed to it in 1993 — two decades before the term ‘clean girl’ was even coined.

While Le Pliage might be the current must-have bag, Longchamp’s new iteration of its (marginally) big sister is prepared to steal the spotlight for the autumn months. First produced in 1992, when its open, tote-bag design was — believe it or not — a new idea, Le Roseau has been reinvented throughout the years to match the changing needs of its wearers — which includes celebrities such as Kendall Jenner and influencers alike. 

Though a new generation of the bag, Le Roseau doesn’t stray far from its ‘90s roots. In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine the design clutched in the tattooed hands of Gabbriette Bechtel, the ‘90s-inspired girl of the moment, no matter where you look on social media. And, as far as it-girls go, it’s not only Bechtel’s wardrobe that Le Roseau could easily slot into, since the AW24 version of the bag comes in a bright green that currently evokes just one thing: Charli xcx’s BRAT (it does come in more neutral tones, too, for those who have managed to avoid total Brat-indoctrination). 

So, as beach totes are traded in for office bags over the next few weeks, Le Roseau might just be the perfect bag for anyone wanting to reaffirm their place as the office siren. The larger sizes can easily fit a laptop inside, while the smaller ones are perfect for on-the-go use. And, as far as style goes, Le Roseau’s simplicity is already perfect for Le Pliage-wearing clean girls. But it also leaves loads of room for over-accessorising (mismatched keyrings aplenty) if you’re someone who’s not quite ready to leave the messiness of Brat summer behind.