The Row Margaux: Soft Margaux vs the Original, Point by Point

Ask five people what the difference is between the Margaux and the Soft Margaux and you will get five assured, contradictory answers. That confusion makes sense, since the two bags share a name, a silhouette and a set of signature buckles, and since the shopping situation around them changed sharply in 2025. What follows is specification-led rather than impression-led — measurements, materials, closures, linings and observed prices, set against each other line by line. Everything here is drawn from what the brand states on its product pages and from prices observed in the market in 2026, which are observations and not an official price list. Where a figure is not reliably documented, this article says so in place of guessing, because the Margaux is the single most misquoted bag in the label’s catalogue. The short answer is that the Soft is not a cheaper or lazier Margaux — it is a more equipped one. The long version is below.

Two Bags Under a Name Through a Complicated Year

The original Margaux is the flagship on which the brand built its handbag reputation, an unlined-looking tote that derives its structure from leather thickness and panel shaping rather than stiffeners. The Soft Margaux entered as a related but separately specified bag, carrying its own construction details and its own product pages. During 2025 the original was removed from third-party retailers, and the brand’s own webstore now leads with the Soft Margaux and the Margaux Shoulder rather than the original. Its discontinuation has been widely reported, but it has never been officially confirmed by the brand, and that distinction is therowbags.org not pedantry when you are deciding what to pay on the secondary market. In practice this means the Soft Margaux is the version on sale new, while the original has become a resale proposition. Anyone comparing the two is therefore comparing a current product against an archive one, which changes how the specification differences should be ranked.

Side by Side on the Spec Sheet

The simplest way to see the difference is to isolate the features the Soft version adds and check them one at a time. Five features in all, and collectively they alter how the bag behaves in daily use rather than how it reads from across a street. Protective metal feet raise the base away from the ground. An interior toggle closure gives the open-top shape a way to shut. Belted side gussets let the profile be cinched or released. A deep cavity becomes something organised once a zip pocket and card slots are added. The table below sets these out alongside the observed 2026 figures for the versions sold new.

Materials, Outside and In

Stated as 100 percent calfskin in a matte grained finish, the Soft Margaux 10 and 12 are both lined in cotton herringbone. The lining choice reveals plenty about the brand’s priorities: a cotton herringbone interior is a textile decision, not a branding one, and it holds shape without introducing the plastic feel of a coated logo jacquard. The Margaux Shoulder 12 goes further and lines the bag in 100 percent lambskin, which is softer, more easily marked and considerably more expensive to work with. Exterior materials across the wider family include grained calfskin, saddle calfskin, suede, canvas paired with leather, and nylon, which means a Margaux is not automatically a smooth-leather bag. Made in Italy is stated on the brand’s own product pages for the Soft Margaux 10 and 12, and for the Margaux Shoulder 12 as well. The suede and canvas versions read differently in the hand and, importantly, perform differently on resale.

Buckles, Hardware and Handles

The Soft Margaux runs palladium-plated hardware, finished matte rather than polished, consistent with the rest of the collection. The signature element on any Margaux is the pair of adjustable side buckles, and on genuine examples those buckles are engraved, as are the base feet where feet are fitted. The buckles are functional rather than decorative, since they are what let the belted gussets 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. The Margaux Shoulder 12 swaps that arrangement out entirely for elongated tubular handles and narrowed gusseted side panels, so it is built from the start to sit under the arm. If you want a single The Row bag that works hands-free without a strap, the Shoulder is the pick rather than the Soft.

Sizes and What the Numbers Mean

The number in the name is just the width of the bag in inches, which makes this family easier to read than most. The Soft Margaux 10 measures 10 x 7 x 7.5 inches, which is a genuinely compact bag with an unusual amount of depth for its footprint. At 12 x 9 x 7.5 inches, the Soft Margaux 12 keeps the depth and adds two inches of width and two of height, which is why most buyers settle on it for daily use. The Margaux Shoulder 12 measures 14.75 x 9 x 5 inches, so despite carrying a 12 in its name it is the widest and the shallowest of the three, because the number refers to the bag’s stated size rather than its maximum external span. There is a Soft Margaux 15 in circulation, and Selfridges has carried a Margaux 17 in a leather-and-canvas execution. No verifiable retail price exists for either, so read any figure quoted for them as an asking price and not a documented one.

What They Cost and How Resale Reacts

In observed 2026 market pricing the Soft Margaux 10 is $3,650 and the Soft Margaux 12 is $4,350, while the Margaux Shoulder 12 is $4,900. Those figures place the whole family in the collection’s top band, next to 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 pushed the label into the report’s unicorn tier for the first time. Softer secondary figures point the same way, with the Margaux reported to sell frequently 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. A major resale authenticator puts new Margaux bags in the $5,000 to $9,000 range, a useful sanity check, since anything advertised in the hundreds is almost certainly counterfeit. This is not investment advice, and it is worth remembering that canvas, nylon and seasonal-colour versions discount instead of appreciating.

Which Version to Choose

If you want the bag you can actually 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 show up 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 just that. Only pursue the original on resale if the archive version is specifically what you want and you are comfortable going without metal feet, a toggle closure or interior organisation. Whatever you choose, remember there is no public authenticity coding system from the brand at all, which leaves verification 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.

1. Start with hand-carry or shoulder, because that separates Soft from Shoulder straight away
2. Then size — the 10 for occasion carry, the 12 for daily use
3. Material follows, and remember that canvas and seasonal colours discount on resale
4. Only after that should an original on the secondary market be considered