The Row Margaux: How the Soft Margaux and the Original Differ, Spec by Spec
Ask five people to explain the difference between the Margaux and the Soft Margaux and you will collect five confident, contradictory answers. That confusion is fair, 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. This is a specification-led comparison, not an impression-led one, running measurements, materials, closures, linings and observed prices 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. If a figure is not reliably documented, that is noted here instead of guessed at, 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 full version is below.
Two Bags, One Name, One Complicated Year
The original Margaux is the flagship the brand built its handbag reputation on, an unlined-looking tote whose structure derives from leather thickness and panel shaping rather than from stiffeners. Related but specified separately, the Soft Margaux arrived with its own construction details and its own product pages. During 2025 the original the row bags classic top handle was pulled 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 not pedantry when you are deciding what to pay on the secondary market. Practically, this means the Soft Margaux is the version you can buy new, while the original is now 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 weighted.
The Spec Sheet, Set Out Side by Side
The clearest way to see the difference is to isolate the features the Soft version adds and take them one at a time. There are five in total, 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 hands the open-top shape a way to close. Belted side gussets make the profile changeable, cinched or released. Adding a zip pocket and card slots turns a deep cavity into a structured interior. These are set out in the table with the observed 2026 figures for the versions sold new.
| Spec | Soft Margaux 10 and 12 | Original Margaux |
|---|---|---|
| Protective metal feet | Fitted as standard | Not part of the specification |
| Interior toggle closure | Present | Absent from the specification |
| Belted side gussets | Fitted as standard | Not specified |
| Zip pocket | Present on the 12 | Not in the specification |
| Card slots | One in the 10, two in the 12 | Not specified |
| Market price, observed 2026 | $3,650 and $4,350 | Available on resale only |
The Materials and What Lines Them
Stated as 100 percent calfskin in a matte grained finish, the Soft Margaux 10 and 12 are both lined in cotton herringbone. A lot about the brand’s priorities sits in that lining, because cotton herringbone inside is a textile decision rather than a branding one, holding shape without 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. On the brand’s own product pages, Made in Italy is printed for the Soft Margaux 10 and 12 and for the Margaux Shoulder 12. Suede and canvas versions feel different in the hand and, more importantly, behave differently on resale.
Hardware and How You Carry It
On the Soft Margaux the hardware is palladium-plated, matte rather than polished in finish, 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, 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. The Margaux Shoulder 12 trades that arrangement 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 one The Row bag that works hands-free without a strap, the Shoulder is the answer rather than the Soft.
The Sizes and the Numbers Behind Them
The number in the name is just the width of the bag in inches, which makes this family easier to navigate than most. The Soft Margaux 10 arrives at 10 x 7 x 7.5 inches, genuinely compact with an unusual amount of depth for the footprint. The Soft Margaux 12 runs 12 x 9 x 7.5 inches, same depth with two inches more width and two more of height, and that is the size most buyers land 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 in circulation, and a Margaux 17 in a leather-and-canvas execution has been carried by Selfridges. No verifiable retail price exists for either, so read any figure quoted for them as an asking price and not a documented one.
The Money: Retail and Resale
Observed 2026 market pricing places the Soft Margaux 10 at $3,650, the Soft Margaux 12 at $4,350 and the Margaux Shoulder 12 at $4,900. Those figures place the whole 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. 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. New Margaux bags are placed in the $5,000 to $9,000 range by a major resale authenticator, which makes a useful sanity check: 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 rather than appreciating.
Which Version to Buy
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. 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. Go after the original on resale only when you specifically want the archive version and are willing to buy 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. Where resale matters, black or neutral calfskin is the buy, and where it does not, buy the colour you genuinely want.
- Start with hand-carry or shoulder, because that separates Soft from Shoulder straight away
- 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 enter the picture