Henry Beguelin
18 Ninth Ave., at 13th St.; 212-647-8415
Designer-produced “It” bags, as often as not, don’t have much more than a logo to justify their four-figure price. Henry Beguelin’s bags aren’t cheap, either, but the craftsmanship is obvious: buttery leathers, tiny bead details, deep colors you won’t see anywhere else. The small bags start at $595—a good value, given that each piece is painstakingly made by hand and actually looks it; you can practically see the little old Italian man carefully stitching each bohemian-style bag with the signature wax thread, punching holes, and adding beads to the fluid, broken-in leather. The blue leather hobo with tassels and ruched-leather handles ($1,500) and bronze clutch ($385) are understated standouts.
Best Small Bags
Our mission this year: to hunt down not just the best but the best values in the eating, shopping, drinking, and general-consuming universe of New York. It’s quite the process, this, requiring eating and shopping and drinking (all in the name of research), followed by heated but civil discussion, and heated but less-civil discussion, until a winner emerges in each category.


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