Louis Vuitton bags that go out of style – versus the top longtime popular bags
Are you looking to buy a designer bag, but unsure about whether it will be one of the bags that go out of style – or may decline in popularity in the future?
Do you think about reselling potential of your bags?
There are many well-established styles, such as the Louis Vuitton monogram Neverfull or the Chanel Grand Shopping Tote. However, currently popular bags may not always maintain consumer interest.
We want proofs of continuous popularity. And thankfully, such proofs exist.
To find out which styles are truly longtime popular bags, we will take a look dedicated look at Louis Vuitton bags in two parts in this article:
- We will find out the most-searched Louis Vuitton bags, and
- We will find out which styles withstand the test of time.
What are the most-searched signature Louis Vuitton bags?
The best way to search for second hand bags is online. The list of merits of buying second hand items online goes on.
The better the availability, the more there is record of searches on the internet. Therefore we got some pretty impressive search volumes for popular Louis Vuitton bags:
In 2019, Google gets 1 to 10 million searches each month on average for “Louis Vuitton” alone.
From here we can see that the Speedy, Pochette, and Neverfull items receive at least 10k to 100k searches per month since January 2016, making them the top 3 popular items in terms of search.
*We have included abbreviations in this volume research, such as “LV Speedy”.
*Search volume is pulled from the most populous English-speaking countries, including the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Sweden, India, and Philippines.
*Note that these stats only give a rough sense of what bag types are well searched. They do not indicate how well individual designs are sold.
Example: Most Iena bags on the market are in canvas. This makes the Iena less varied in material. Turennes, however, have been released in other materials. It has been released in Epi for example and looked very different from canvas. Therefore this may be one of the reasons why Turennes may have more search volume, but that doesn’t mean less Iena units were sold.
Let’s also think about relative popularity overtime. Although we can find out overall popular bags by looking at search volume, these stats are average monthly searches. Just because something used to get thousands of searches a month, doesn’t mean it still does. How do we know that the peak of some bag’s popularity is already over? A good way to find out is to look at Google Trends.
Researching on longtime popular bags
Google Trends is the most authoritative tool online that shows historical popularity of certain search terms. While it doesn’t represent total search volume, it indicates relative interest.
If a chart on Google Trends shows a steady pattern since 2004, we can assume that a bag is maintaining good popularity now, compared to its own popularity in the past.
We can also see which bags experienced relative surges and slumps in interest. These data can give you a rough gauge of when to sell your bags, or just to avoid stuff no longer in trend.
Our research methodology for popularity over time:
We picked items that have been released for 5 years or more.
We picked keywords that encompass some variations in size, material or print. We do not want to break down the research by every small variation, like gm or mm, because it will be hard to read.
Unlike volume, we looked at worldwide trends.
Some designs have more variations than others, so comparisons in the post are mainly observations, not tightly controlled.
Example: There are many Louis Vuitton pochettes and they look very different from each other. The Pochette Metis is larger than many other pochettes. Some has leather straps and some has chain straps. Others do not have an envelope shape and close by zippers. For ease of comparison, we will not research every type of Lousi Vuitton pochette – we will roughly treat all pochette styles as the same category.
Louis Vuitton Neverfull
Louis Vuitton Alma
Louis Vuitton Speedy
Louis Vuitton New Wave
Louis Vuitton Petite Boite Chapeau
Louis Vuitton Looping
Louis Vuitton Pochette
Louis Vuitton Capucines
Louis Vuitton City Steamer
Louis Vuitton bags that have been GROWING in popularity
It’s one thing to own a bag that has sold well. By carrying a bestseller, you have the same bag as many other people.
But it’s another story to buy a bag that started out alright, but surged in search demand later.
The most outstanding bag overtime is the Louis Vuitton Neverfull, with had been steadily growing in popularity since the 2013.
We found that Louis Vuitton Pochette bag experienced even sharper growth than the Neverfull since the beginning of 2018.
Two other bags that were found to be growing are the Croisette and the Favorite bags. Both of these bags are smaller shoulder bags with thinner straps, which can be attributed to 2017-2018 trends. Small shoulder bags have been performing well in this time range.
However, if we were to compare all four increasingly popular bags (Neverfull, Pochette, Croisetts and Favorite), we can see that the Neverfull is the relative winner. As a tote bag, the Neverfull is easy to own, maintain, and resell.
Louis Vuitton bags that are STEADY in popularity
Several bags show steady interest over time. The Louis Vuitton Speedy is everywhere – not just worldwide, but throughout the years. Alma bags show a similar pattern since 2011. These two popular bags probably will not drop in search demand soon.
The Louis Vuittion Artsy, Montaigne, Siena and clutch bags are all pretty steady for many years now.
Louis Vuitton bags that have been DECLINING in popularity
We checked bags that have declined in search at some point since 2004. These bags have yet to make a comeback, and remain relatively low in interest ever since their decline.
Important: just because a style hasn’t made a comeback, doesn’t mean its price is low. You may still see any of these bags currently listed at high prices because of rarity. Trends also don’t imply that a bag has low value for the money. It just means that these bags used to be more sought-after online than they are in the recent years.
| Looping |
| Babylone |
| Batignolles |
| Luco |
| Totally |
| Cabas |
| Delightful |
| Galliera |
| Turenne |
The Louis Vuitton Looping bags provide an example of decline that hasn’t made a comeback. Babylone, Batignolles, Luco, and Cabas bags share similar patterns.
Turenne and Galliera experienced more recent declines (certainly not prior to 2012). Meanwhile, Delightful and Totally did not experience sharp sudden drops – so if they have any new releases, they might easily make a comeback.
The New Wave has an interesting comeback in summer 2018, after more than 10 years of plateau’ed searches. –cannot find info in 2004
What about more recent Louis Vuitton releases?
We would never think that designer bags are volatile investments. In particular, newer bags with less than 5 years of release do well in search history.
The Louis Vuitton NéoNoé, Iena, Cluny, New Wave, and Chapeau bags generally are doing well in Google Trends.
In other words, if you acquire a new style and expect to sell them within a short time, you should not worry that it is one of the bags that go out of style.
Hard-to-recognize bags are also hard to sell in the future
Luxury brands have permanent lineups. Permanent products have less variation from season to season.
On the other hand, trend-sensitive designs are also sent down the runway each season. Characteristics from such seasonal exclusives can deviate a lot from what most people consider to be iconic.
Some of these seasonal exclusives are not well recognized after many years on the pre-owned market, and they can be more expensive than permanent lineups to begin with.
Would you usually associate ethnic hobos with Gucci?
Or Louis Vuitton with whimsical mascots?
Did you know that Louis Vuitton seasonal collaborations give rise to so many eclectic handbag designs? Not only to the extent that prints are different on popular bags like the Speedy – but also constructions that you won’t expect in LV collections today, like bow ties?
To offset seasonal collaborations from falling into obscurity, certain seasonal items are proliferated with logos. This way, branding should be obvious, right?
However, we found that these seasonal logo-items eventually fell after a few seasons of buzz. Let’s take a look at Louis Vuitton’s Murakami designs for example:
This chart above shows that not as many people are searching for those once-hyped Murakami bags anymore. We replaced the keyword Murakami with “cherry” and “cherry blossom” bags, and found the same falling trend.
Speaking of special collaborations, nearly all special edition, or special collaboration bags, lose popularity overtime.
Coppola
Kusama
Prince
Sprouse
Conclusion and summary
Online data reveal a lot for bag aficionados and resellers.
Google gives data as far back as 2016 for keyword volume research, and 2004 for trend research. We get a nice estimate of popularity in designer bags, but it’s not everything.
If you want to sell a less than popular item, the good news is that the second-hand market is growing. Many ecommerce sites make reseller’s lives a lot easier. Whether you choose consignment or to list items on your own on auction sites, there is overall a lot more interest in designer bags now.
Again, rarity means a higher selling price as long as the bag is in good condition. If you want to go for a not-so-popular bag, there is some chance of a comeback as long as you have the patience.
If you have not yet acquired a Louis Vuitton bag, but is thinking about buying and enjoying the processing of reselling soon, it’s best to stick to well-searched bag designs that are steady or growing.
