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

Put the difference between the Margaux and the Soft Margaux to five people and five confident, contradictory answers come back. 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. What follows is a specification-led comparison rather than an impression-led one: measurements, materials, closures, linings and observed prices, set against each other line by line. The material here rests on what the brand states on its product pages plus prices observed in the market in 2026, which remain observations rather than an official price list. If a figure is not reliably documented, that is flagged here instead of guessed at, because the Margaux is the single most misquoted bag in the label’s catalogue. The short version: the Soft is neither a cheaper nor a lazier Margaux, it is the more equipped bag. The longer version is set out below.

One Name, Two Bags, and a Complicated Year

The brand built its handbag reputation on the original Margaux, an unlined-looking tote whose structure comes from leather thickness and panel shaping instead of stiffeners. The Soft Margaux entered as a related but separately specified bag, carrying its own construction details and its own product pages. In 2025 the original disappeared from third-party retailers, and the brand’s own webstore now shows the Soft Margaux and the Margaux Shoulder instead of the original. Reports of its discontinuation are widespread, but no official confirmation has ever come from the brand, and that difference matters rather than being pedantry when you are setting a price row on the secondary market. Practically speaking, the Soft Margaux is the one you can buy new and the original is now a resale proposition. Comparing the two therefore means setting a current product against an archive one, which changes how much weight the specification differences deserve.

Two Spec Sheets, Compared

The difference shows most cleanly when the features the Soft version adds are isolated and checked one by one. 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 keep the base off the ground. An interior toggle closure gives the open-top shape a way to shut. Belted side gussets make the profile adjustable, cinched or released. A zip pocket and card slots turn a deep cavity into something organised. The table below sets these out alongside the observed 2026 figures for the versions sold new.

Materials, Inside and Out

The Soft Margaux 10 and 12 are each specified as 100 percent calfskin in a matte grained finish, with cotton herringbone lining in both. That choice of lining tells you 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. The Margaux Shoulder 12 goes a step further, lining the bag in 100 percent lambskin — 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. The suede and canvas versions read differently in the hand and, importantly, perform differently on resale.

Buckles, Fittings and Handles

Hardware on the Soft Margaux is palladium-plated and finished matte rather than polished, consistent with the rest of the collection. Any Margaux is signed by its pair of adjustable side buckles, and on genuine examples those buckles carry engraving, as do the base feet where feet are fitted. Purpose rather than decoration is the point of the buckles, as they are what enables the belted gussets to change the bag’s width. Both the Soft Margaux 10 and 12 run a 5-inch handle drop, 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. For one The Row bag that carries hands-free without a strap, the answer is the Shoulder and not the Soft.

Sizes, and What the Numbers Actually Mean

The number in the name is only the width of the bag in inches, which makes the family easier to navigate than most. The Soft Margaux 10 measures 10 x 7 x 7.5 inches, a genuinely compact bag carrying unusual depth for its 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. The Margaux Shoulder 12 comes in at 14.75 x 9 x 5 inches, which makes it the widest and shallowest of the three despite the 12 in its name, as the number denotes 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. Neither of those two has a retail price that can be verified, so treat any figure quoted for them as an asking price rather than a documented one.

What Each One Costs and What Resale Is Doing

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. That places the entire family in the collection’s top band, alongside 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. Less firm secondary figures agree, 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 in place of appreciating.

Choosing Your Version

If what you want is the bag you can actually buy new, with a warranty of availability and the fuller specification, the Soft Margaux is the straightforward answer. Choose the 10 if you carry little and want the shape at its most sculptural, and the 12 if you want a working bag, since the second card slot and the zip pocket only appear at that size. Choose the Margaux Shoulder 12 if the way you carry a bag is under the arm rather than in the hand, because its tubular handles and narrowed gussets are built for exactly 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. If resale matters, buy black or neutral calfskin, and if it does not, buy whatever colour you like.

1. Decide hand-carry or shoulder first, because that splits Soft from Shoulder immediately
2. Then fix size, with the 10 for occasion carry and the 12 for daily use
3. Material follows, and remember that canvas and seasonal colours discount on resale
4. And only then look at an original on the secondary market