From a handbag with a dachshund charm to a deer-print tote with room for a tablet, JW PEI is making a persuasive case for everyday bags with a little more personality.
The dachshund is not there to help. Dangling from JW PEI’s deep-burgundy Maeve hobo, it serves no purpose beyond making the bag more delightful to look at. It will not make finding your keys easier, accommodate an extra lipstick or improve the journey to work. It is simply a charming thing to have on a handbag. And why not?
That is the pleasure running through the label’s latest arrivals. There are familiar bags here, from small crossbodies to substantial shoulder carriers, but many have been given an unexpected detail or an unusually assertive finish. They have to accommodate phones and laptops like any other everyday accessory. They just decline to let usefulness dictate how they should look.
The Maeve itself is a good place to start. Remove its little canine companion and you have an easy slouchy hobo in a rather good shade of wine red. With the charm, it becomes a bag someone might stop you to ask about. A tiny addition changes the entire conversation.
A reason to look twice
The Sharon Fringe Crossbody is more extroverted. Burgundy crocodile embossing runs across its curved body, while a curtain of fringe falls from the lower edge. It sounds like a lot for one small bag. In practice, the crescent shape holds everything together. There is still room for a phone, and an adjustable strap keeps it in the realm of an everyday crossbody rather than something destined to spend most of its life in a dust bag.
The attraction is in that slight excess. Without the fringe, the Sharon might look like any number of compact croc-effect bags. With it, the familiar half-moon becomes rather less predictable. The black version makes the same point more discreetly, although the burgundy has greater presence.
The Virella Quilted Vanity bag has a subtler sense of fun. A small case-shaped handbag is usually quite prim, particularly when carried by its short top handle. JW PEI makes this one in faded blue denim, quilted into neat squares, and supplies a longer strap for wearing it across the body. The combination is slightly contrary. The bag looks dressed up and dressed down at the same time.
Denim is an exception in this selection, not the beginning of a denim-bag manifesto. What matters is the decision to put an informal fabric on a format with such dressed-up associations. The black Thea Quilted Top Handle provides an instructive comparison. Here, stitching gives a compact vegan-leather bag a graphic face, with none of denim’s casual associations. The same technique, entirely different effect.
A little excess, on a larger scale
The most interesting test of an adventurous handbag is what happens when it gets bigger. It is relatively easy to justify a dramatic little evening bag. A tote that accompanies you through a working day asks more of its owner. It also gives a print or material a far larger canvas.
Consider the Hana Medium Faux Fur Deer Pattern Tote. It is spotted, generously furry and nearly impossible to ignore. Yet its 43cm width and room for a tablet make it a credible day bag, not merely an accessory for a photograph. The pattern has a wit that could be lost amid competing prints. Worn with a straightforward coat and trousers, it would have the scene largely to itself. That is probably how it ought to be worn.
JW PEI’s other Hana takes the opposite approach without retreating into anonymity. In dark-brown faux suede, the Belt Detail Tote is 46cm wide, large enough for a 13-inch laptop and finished with a belt across its front. It has none of the deer-print version’s obvious humour. Instead, the appeal lies in the weight of that brown, the breadth of the bag and a detail that gives an otherwise familiar tote something of its own.
It would be wrong to pretend that these finishes involve no compromises. Faux suede needs more consideration than an easy-to-wipe surface, particularly in a dark colour. That is a perfectly reasonable trade-off when the appearance is part of why you wanted the bag in the first place.
The Rhea Large Shoulder Bag makes a further argument for individuality at the practical end of the collection. Its 40cm-wide body can hold a 14-inch laptop. The pebbled dark-green version has prominent double buckles and a close, irregular grain. The light grey-green woven version places an almost basket-like pattern across a similar broad body. They meet much the same requirements. They look like different decisions.
That distinction is worth dwelling on. We are often encouraged to think of the work bag as a problem with one correct solution. Plenty of space, sensible straps, an unobtrusive colour. But two bags can meet the same practical brief and still say quite different things about the person carrying them. The Rhea makes the case without sacrificing a pocket or a laptop-sized interior to do it.
The appeal of a familiar bag, done differently
Not every bag needs a charm, a print or a row of buckles. Some of the most convincing choices in this edit are made almost entirely through material. The Yvette Elongated Tote is a good example. The shape stays the same, long and low, with handles that sit on the shoulder and a zip pocket inside. In burgundy faux suede, it feels softer and faintly nostalgic. In smooth mocha-brown vegan leather, it is far more matter-of-fact. The first brings a hint of vintage. The second makes a virtue of being unfussy.
The Velora Smooth Hobo deserves a mention for much the same reason. Its black body and single shoulder strap have no intention of drawing a crowd. It is a useful counterweight to the fringe, fur and novelty charms elsewhere. There should always be room for the simpler bag, provided its simplicity is a choice and not an obligation.
What connects these bags is not a single trend. The deer-print tote and the smooth black hobo would scarcely recognise one another across a room. What they share is the idea that a handbag should suit the person buying it, rather than conform to a narrow definition of what a sensible purchase ought to resemble.
JW PEI has made room for the practical things. There are adjustable straps, internal pockets and bags that carry a laptop without complaint. But the most appealing pieces also offer an excuse to choose with your eyes, your instincts and perhaps your sense of humour. The dachshund may be entirely unnecessary. That is exactly why it belongs.
