What’s Next? My Six Predictions for the Next Wave of Bags – Autumn/Winter 26
There is a question I get asked constantly. What’s going to be the next It bag? And increasingly, I think
There is a question I get asked constantly. What’s going to be the next It bag? And increasingly, I think
A Founder’s Reflection by Tony Hookings-Skinner There is a phrase I hear increasingly often when people talk about counterfeit designer
There are some things in fashion that need absolutely no introduction. From the brilliance of Karl Lagerfeld, we gained the
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There are people who watch Fashion Week for the celebrities, some watch for the front row, and others watch for the spectacle.
I watch for something completely different, I am watching for the beginning.
Every season, somewhere in Paris, Milan, London or New York, designers stand behind the curtain waiting to reveal months, sometimes years of ideas, research and craftsmanship. Before a handbag appears on a high street, before a colour becomes “the colour of the season”, before suede, oversized silhouettes or east-west bags begin filling our social feeds, those ideas are often introduced on a runway.
Not every trend survives, not every collection changes fashion, but every collection starts a conversation.
And that’s what fascinates me.
When people ask where fashion trends come from, there isn’t one simple answer.
Street style influences luxury, vintage influences new collections, even music, film, architecture and travel all leave their mark.
But Fashion Week remains one of the few places where designers can present a complete vision of where they believe fashion should go next.
It’s the industry’s opening chapter and the rest of the world decides how the story unfolds.
I’ve never sat on a front row. I’ve never watched a collection from inside the room and I’ve never experienced the anticipation before the lights dim or the silence before the first model steps onto the runway, but I want to.
Not because I want the photograph, not because I want to say I was there, but because I genuinely want to understand fashion at its source, I want to see the details the cameras don’t always capture.
The way leather moves, the proportions of a bag in real life, the texture of suede under natural light.
And more than that its the conversations after the show and the emotion behind the collection, that’s where I believe real learning happens.
One of my biggest goals for Élan Archive isn’t simply to grow the business, it’s to earn a place within the wider fashion conversation.
I’ve registered my interest for London Fashion Week, realistically, I know I’m a small independent business and there are brands, editors, buyers and creators who have spent years building those relationships, but every established name was once unknown.
Every invitation starts with someone believing you belong in the room, whether that invitation comes this season or years from now doesn’t really matter.
The goal stays the same.
Running Élan Archive has taught me that selling luxury handbags is only part of the story and the more collections I handle, the more I realise that understanding fashion is just as important as understanding resale value.
If I know why a silhouette appeared, why a colour keeps returning or why suede suddenly feels relevant again, I know I am in the best position to better advise my clients, not just on what’s desirable today, but on what may become desirable tomorrow.
Fashion Week isn’t just inspiration, it’s education.
I’ve always believed that the best collectors don’t simply acquire beautiful things, they understand them, they know the history behind a bag, the designer who created it and the cultural moment that made it significant.
Fashion Week represents another step in that journey but not as a spectator, as a lifelong student of fashion.
People often see luxury as the finished product, the bag in the boutique, the campaign on Instagram or the celebrity carrying it.
I see something different, I see the sketches, the prototypes, the runway and the ideas that existed long before the world decided they were fashionable.
That’s where the real magic lives.
One day, I know that I will experience it first-hand, not because it completes the journey but because it marks the beginning of the next one.
Whether that first invitation arrives next season or several years from now, the goal remains exactly the same and that is, to keep learning, to keep asking questions and to keep understanding the craftsmanship and creativity behind the pieces we admire.
Because great collections don’t begin in a boutique, they begin with an idea and every great journey starts with taking the first step.
Keep the passion. Enjoy the journey.
By Tony Hookings-Skinner, founder of Elan Archive