The Row Margaux: How the Soft Margaux and the Original Diverge, Spec by Spec
Ask five different people how the Margaux and the Soft Margaux differ and you will hear five confident, conflicting answers. It is understandable confusion, given that the two share a name, a silhouette and a set of signature buckles, and that the shopping situation around them changed sharply in 2025. Below is a specification-led comparison in place of an impression-led one, putting measurements, materials, closures, linings and observed prices side by side line by line. Everything here comes from what the brand states on its product pages and from prices observed in the market in 2026, which are observations rather than an official price list. Where a figure is not reliably documented, this article says so rather than guessing, since the Margaux is the single most misquoted bag in the label’s catalogue. The short version is that the Soft is not a cheaper or lazier Margaux; it is a more equipped one. The full version is below.
One Name, Two Bags, and a Complicated Year
The original Margaux is the flagship on which the brand built its handbag reputation, an unlined-looking tote that draws its structure from leather thickness and panel shaping rather than stiffeners. The Soft Margaux arrived as a related but separately specified bag, carrying its own construction details and its own product pages. In 2025 the original went missing from third-party retailers, and the brand’s own webstore now fronts the Soft Margaux and the Margaux Shoulder instead of the original. Its discontinuation has been widely reported, but it has never been officially confirmed by the brand, and that distinction is not pedantry when you are deciding what to pay on the secondary market. Practically speaking, the Soft Margaux is the one you can buy new and the original is now a resale proposition. The comparison is thus between a current product and an archive one, and that changes the weight the specification differences should hold.
The Spec Sheet, Side by Side
The clearest way to see the https://stlaurentbag.com/ difference is to isolate the features the Soft version adds and take them one at a time. There are five of them, and together they change how the bag behaves in daily use rather than how it looks from across a street. Protective metal feet keep the base off the ground. An interior toggle closure supplies the closing mechanism the open-top shape otherwise lacks. Belted side gussets allow the profile to be drawn in or let out. A deep cavity becomes something organised once a zip pocket and card slots are added. These are set out in the table with the observed 2026 figures for the versions sold new.
| Feature | Soft Margaux 10 and 12 | Original Margaux |
|---|---|---|
| Protective metal feet | Fitted | Absent from the specification |
| Interior toggle closure | Fitted | Not in the specification |
| Belted side gussets | Included | Not specified |
| Zip pocket | On the 12 only | Not in the specification |
| Card slots | One in the 10, two in the 12 | Not part of the specification |
| Observed 2026 pricing | $3,650 and $4,350 | Resale only |
The Materials and What Lines Them
The Soft Margaux 10 and 12 are both stated as 100 percent calfskin in a matte grained finish, and both are lined in cotton herringbone. That choice of lining says a great deal about the brand’s priorities, since a cotton herringbone interior is a textile decision rather than a branding one, and it holds shape without the plastic feel of a coated logo jacquard. Further up, the Margaux Shoulder 12 is lined in 100 percent lambskin, softer and more easily marked and considerably more expensive to work with. Across the wider family the exterior materials include grained calfskin, saddle calfskin, suede, canvas paired with leather, and nylon, so a Margaux is not automatically a smooth-leather bag. The brand’s own product pages state Made in Italy for the Soft Margaux 10 and 12 and for the Margaux Shoulder 12. The suede and canvas versions read differently in the hand and, crucially, perform differently on resale.
The Hardware, the Buckles and the Handles
Hardware on the Soft Margaux is palladium-plated and finished matte rather than polished, in line with the rest of the collection. Any Margaux is marked by its pair of adjustable side buckles, and on genuine examples those buckles carry engraving, as do the base feet where feet are fitted. The buckles are functional, not decorative, because they are what allows the belted gussets to change the width of the bag. The Soft Margaux 10 and 12 both run a 5-inch handle drop, which is a hand-carry or crook-of-the-elbow measurement rather than a shoulder one, and both include a removable shoulder strap to cover the difference. Elongated tubular handles and narrowed gusseted side panels replace the arrangement entirely on the Margaux Shoulder 12, which is designed from the start to sit under the arm. If you want one The Row bag that works hands-free without a strap, the Shoulder is the answer rather than the Soft.
What the Size Numbers Actually Tell You
The name’s number gives nothing more than the bag’s width in inches, and that makes the family easier to navigate than most. The Soft Margaux 10 comes in at 10 x 7 x 7.5 inches, genuinely compact with an unusual amount of depth for the footprint. The Soft Margaux 12 measures 12 x 9 x 7.5 inches, keeping the same depth while gaining two inches of width and two of height, and that is the size most buyers settle on for daily use. At 14.75 x 9 x 5 inches, the Margaux Shoulder 12 is the widest and shallowest of the three in spite of the 12 in its name, because that number refers to the bag’s stated size and not its maximum external span. A Soft Margaux 15 is out there as well, and a leather-and-canvas Margaux 17 has been carried by Selfridges. Retail prices for those two cannot be verified, so take any quoted figure as an asking price rather than a documented one.
The Money: Retail and Resale
On observed 2026 market pricing, the Soft Margaux 10 sits at $3,650, the Soft Margaux 12 at $4,350 and the Margaux Shoulder 12 at $4,900. The family therefore sits in the collection’s top band, in company with the India and Agnes top handles and the Marlo totes. On the secondary market the picture is unusual — the Rebag CLAIR 2025 report put the Margaux Tote at 107 percent value retention, part of a brand-level figure of 97 percent that carried the label into the report’s unicorn tier for the first time. The softer secondary numbers say the same thing — frequent Margaux sales reported at around 40 percent above retail, Fashionphile resale reported up roughly 44 percent year on year, and The RealReal reporting pre-owned Margaux sales averaging about 15 percent over original retail. One major resale authenticator places new Margaux bags in the $5,000 to $9,000 range, and that is a useful sanity check, because anything advertised in the hundreds is almost certainly counterfeit. None of this is investment advice, and it is worth remembering that canvas, nylon and seasonal-colour versions discount rather than appreciate.
Which Version to Choose
Want the bag you can genuinely purchase new, with a warranty of availability and the fuller specification? The Soft Margaux is the straightforward answer. Pick the 10 for light carrying and the shape at its most sculptural; pick the 12 for a working bag, as the second card slot and the zip pocket only arrive at that size. Take the Margaux Shoulder 12 if you carry under the arm rather than in the hand, since its tubular handles and narrowed gussets are built for exactly that. Chase the original on resale only if you specifically want the archive version and you are comfortable buying without metal feet, a toggle closure or interior organisation. Whatever you pick, note that the brand runs no public authenticity coding system at all, so verification comes down to stitching, hand-painted edges, stamp placement and the weight and finish of the hardware. Buy black or neutral calfskin if resale matters to you; buy whatever colour you like if it does not.
- Resolve hand-carry or shoulder first, since that splits Soft from Shoulder immediately
- Then size — the 10 for occasion carry, the 12 for daily use
- Then choose material, mindful that canvas and seasonal colours discount on resale
- Only after that should an original on the secondary market be considered
