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In the past, women’s work bags were designed to assert power. Women marched into the boardroom with hyper-structured “girlboss” totes or aggressively minimalist tech clutches. But there’s a shift taking place. Many worklife bags today are softer, both visually and physically. They’re lighter. They collapse. They transition seamlessly from the office to the many other things that fill your life: The mid-day grocery run, a coffee meeting that turns into school pickup, dinner with friends straight from the office. Every year, I test dozens of bags in search of the ones that best capture how were actually living and working right now. It’s clear that work bags are slowly shedding their armor. Rigidity and structure have given way to something more fluid. And perhaps they say something about our identity as working women. We’re not longer looking for a bag that assert power and competence, but rather one that reflects how work is just one part of our lives. This years standout bags share a clear through line: Theyre soft without being sloppy. Structured enough to carry a laptop securelybut relaxed enough to collapse into something chic and compact once the tech is removed. Theyre built for a hybrid life. After months of testing, here are the five bags that rose to the top. [Photo: Strathberry] Barra Tote Strathberry, $895 At first glance, the Barra Totemade by the fast-growing Scottish startup Strathberrylooks like a classic, polished work bag. It’s made with 100% grain calf leather in a family-owned factory in Spain. The clean lines and signature gold bar detail give it a distinctly elevated feelone that would be perfectly at home in a boardroom. But once you start carrying it, you realize its more versatile than it appears. The leather has structure but isnt stiff. With my 14-inch laptop inside, the bag feels balanced and intentionalnot boxy or overstuffed. Theres enough organization to keep everything upright and easy to access, but not so much that it feels over-engineered. What surprised me most is how the bag transforms when you remove the laptop. It relaxes slightly, softening into a sleek everyday tote. Add the crossbody strap and it becomes commuter-friendly, freeing up your hands for coffee, phone, or a childs hand on a busy sidewalk. Its the rare bag that signals professionalism without locking you into it. [Photo: Cuyana] Forma Satchel Cuyana, $698 Cuyana has built its reputation on the idea of fewer, better things, and the Forma Satchel embodies that philosophy. This bag has two distinct silhouettes, an architectural hexagonal satchel that transforms thanks to hidden magnetic side panels into a spacious tote bag. With it’s rounded edges, it feels refined rather than rigid. The pebbled Italian leatherwhich has been environmentally certified by the Leather Working Groupfeels substantial but not heavy, and the bag holds its shape beautifully when a laptop is inside. Thanks to metal feet at the base, my computer sits upright, making it easy to slide in and out during meetings. Yet once the laptop is removed, the Forma doesnt collapse awkwardly or gape open. It simply becomes a polished everyday satchelsleek enough for work, understated enough for weekend errands. It pairs just as well with tailored trousers as it does with denim and sneakers. It doesnt demand attention, but it quietly pulls an outfit together. This is the bag for someone who wants versatility without visual clutter. [Photo: Vestirsi] Bella 2-in-1 Convertible Backpack Tote Vestirsi, $679If any bag on this list fully embraces the fluidity of modern life, its this one. The Bella can be worn as a tote or converted into a backpacka feature that genuinely changes how you move through your day. In tote mode, it reads polished and office-ready. In backpack mode, it becomes a practical companion for commuting, travel, or long days on your feet. The bag is made by the Australian startup Vestirsi, which makes all of its products in Italian factories. The leather, now in a chic woven design, gives the bag visual softness and texture, which helps it avoid the overly technical look of many laptop backpacks. Even with my computer inside, it doesnt scream tech bag. Instead, it feels artisanal and thoughtfully designed. When worn as a backpack, the weight distribution is noticeably more comfortable, especially during longer walks. And when th laptop comes out, the bag slouches just enough to feel relaxed and lifestyle-oriented. Its a reminder that functionality doesnt have to sacrifice aesthetics. [Photo: MZ Wallace] Medium Park Satchel MZ Wallace, $325 MZ Wallace has long mastered the art of the ultra-lightweight bag, and the Medium Park Satchel is a standout example. Before you put anything inside, it feels almost featherlight. Even with a laptop, charger, and daily essentials, it never crosses into shoulder-aching territory. The quilted nylon construction makes it durable and practical, but the shape remains feminine and refined. It’s the little details that made it feel refined: The Italian leather trim, the gold hardware, the straps that come down the front, adding visual interest. The color options this yearespecially the bold apple pinksignal a shift away from the traditional black-and-brown work bag palette. Work bags dont have to be neutral to be professional. When I remove my laptop, the Park Satchel instantly feels like a playful everyday carryall. The crossbody strap makes it easy to navigate crowded sidewalks or public transportation without feeling weighed down. Its the most low-maintenance bag of the groupand thats precisely its appeal. [Photo: Jorja] Jorja Puffy Tote Jorja, $625 The Puffy Tote represents perhaps the clearest aesthetic shift of all: toward softness. Made by Jorja, a startup that uses the same nylon and factories as luxury brands like Prada, the padded body feels almost cloud-like against the shoulder. Its protective without appearing corporate, and theres something inherently comforting about carrying it. With a laptop inside, the cushioning adds a sense of security. Without one, the bag gently slouches into a fashion-forward tote. Unlike traditional structured work bags, this one feels casualbut not careless. It works with tailored outfits and athleisure alike, making it especially well-suited for days that move between multiple settings. It doesnt look like a laptop bag. And thats the point.
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E-Commerce
When looking for an apartment in San Francisco today, artificial intelligence can seem inescapable; and thats not just because every rental building seems to have an AI bot answering calls. In San Francisco, the technologys ascendencyand the subsequent skyrocketing job growth has helped make the apartment market one of the tightest in the nation, with the fastest growing rent in the U.S. Lisa McCarrel, Managing Partner of Move Bay Area, a relocation and rental housing service, has seen the rental market become frenzied in recent months due in part to the increase in AI and AI-adjacent jobs. With units harder to come by, shes seen some potential tenants offer a years rent in cash upfront. I just had a meeting with my team because spring time is typically when the rental market here starts to get crazy, says McCarrel. But its already crazy. Ive been running this business for 11 years, and this is the first time Ive had to hold a meeting to prepare staff for what will be a hyper-competitive market. Between 2024 and 2025, job postings for AI roles in the Bay Area, many extremely high-paying, grew 72%, from roughly 57,000 to 99,000, according to an analysis by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. That influx of new, highly paid workerswho may be renting until a post-IPO windfallhas helped rents in the city of San Francisco jump 13% year-over-year, according to data from Apartment List. The market currently has a 3.5% vacancy rate, roughly half the national average (nearly even with the citys pre-Covid 2019 vacancy rate of 3.4%). Jackie Tom, founder and broker of the agency Rentals in SF, said the market is now very busy and well past pre-pandemic pricing. A different kind of tech boom But not all tech booms are created equal. AIs outsized impact on San Francisco differs today significantly from the impact of the 2010s tech expansion, when it felt like tech hiring had a wider impact on other economic sectors. In part, thats because of both where AI firms are located and their workforce cultures, as well as the overall state of the economy. That same job posting analysis found non-AI jobs in the region declined 1% over the same period. Ten years ago, you had tech workers flocking to San Francisco, but a lot of them moved to the South Bay or the Peninsula, or lived across the city and took buses to Menlo Park, Mountain View or Cupertino, says Apartment List economist Chris Salviati, referencing the Silicon Valley HQs of Meta, Alphabet, and Apple, respectively. Right now, the neighborhoods where AI companies are based are seeing an influx of apartment demand. San Francisco neighborhoods such as SoMa, where Anthropic recently took over a 430,000 square-foot office, and Mission Bay, where OpenAI expanded its office footprint to encompass more than 1 million square feet, have seen skyrocketing demand for rental units, says Salviati. RentCafe data shows one-bedroom units in these neighborhoods at $4,700 and $3,800. Anna Squires Levine, president of coworking firm Industrious, said demand for their San Francisco locations has been off the charts due to AI. AI firms have embraced 9-9-6 culture, a concept pushing workers to grind from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. With that kind of schedule, and offices and startups clustered in a handful of neighborhoods, the new AI workforce wants to live as close as possible, ideally walking distance, to eliminate long commutes. One firm, Cluey, even gives its employees rental subsidies. Thats a sea change from the 2010s boom that reshaped San Francisco, where many workers either lived in the city, as well as Oakland, and commuted to Silicon Valley offices. In fact, whereas Oakland was seen as a battleground against gentrification during the last tech wave a decade ago, dealing with dramatic rent increases, today, its apartment market has flatlined, as a lack of demand and a surplus of new apartment supply has pushed rents down 20% compared to 2020. AIs growth, in terms of its office leasing footprint, remains ravenous, says Colin Yasukochi, executive director of the Tech Insights Center at CBRE, a massive international real estate brokerage and services firm. Last year, nearly a third of the 10.5 million square feet of office leases were for AI companies. Yasukochi says that if you add up all the total space requirements for AI firms looking for new offices right now, it would total 3.3 million square feet. McCarrel of Move Bay Area says shes seeing industry growth move in phases; last year, she was helping AI startup founders find places to live, and now shes working with more of the employees theyre starting to hire. For AI firms, says Yasukochi, the most important factor is time, as they race each other to deliver the newest model or breakthrough; leases have mostly been for massive blocks of move-in ready space they can immediately occupy and get to work (typically, high-end office tenants would spend lots of time and money refurbishing their trophy offices). Keeping pressure on a crowded rental market The influx of thousands of new tech jobs doesnt offset area job losses in other sectors, as well as the tech industry at large, says Abby Raisz, Vice President of Research at the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. But it is concentrating pressure on the high end of the rental market. The citys long-time shortage of new housing, as well as stubbornly high interest rates pushing more high-income renters into the rental market instead of buying, has made that segment of the market especially crowded in 2026. McCarrel says that its a full-time job for someone seeking a place to have to continuously call leads and monitor what is and isnt available; she doubts even an AI program made by some of these new arrivals would help someone figure out a new living arrangement. Theres too many barriers, she says. You have to be very careful the way you communicate with brokers and owners; theres a lot of competition. Most forecasts see AI companies continuing to expand, which will bring more jobs, and increase competition among San Francisco apartment seekers. Enrico Moretti, an economist at UC Berkeley, says as firms start commercializing AI, there will be an explosion in hiring as investment in training leads to more monetization. But the contours of this boom remain uncertain; if AI tools can make workers more efficient and therefore shrink office space and headcount, the companies most impacted by this effect will be those creating the AI in the first place. We have to throw out the ideas about the way companies grow right now, says Raisz. AI companies will be the best at using their tech to be efficient, and theyll be really good about being efficient and not overhiring. Is AI a new job creator o destroyer? Its still a question mark. McCarrel says the market is so tough, shell probably be handing out copies of articles like this one to potential renters she works with; the process of finding an apartment can be like a marathon, so best to set expectations right away.
Category:
E-Commerce
By now, youve surely noticed it. Jean waistlines, sky-high not so long ago, are going lower. Low enough that you might need to think of underwear as outerwear. Across the fashion industry, experts agree that in 2026, ultra-low-rise will be a key business driver in the denim sector, with some brands saying that their low-rise styles have replaced the eternally popular high-rise as their best selling cut. “What we’re going to see in this next decade is [itll be] really dominated by the low-rise,” says Amy Williams, CEO of Citizens of Humanity group, which also owns the premium denim brand Agolde. “Right now, you’re sort of at that early stage where people are just now getting a feel for it. If you pay attention to the runways or street style, you might have already picked up on this shift, as celebrities, models, and on-trend normies started trading in high-waisted jeans for pairs that sit low on the hips in the past couple of years. But the real tell is that low-rise jeans finally hit mass market. In 2025, global brands with slowerto-adopt consumers like Gap found their large customer base was finally ready for the navel-gazing silhouette. Weve been kind of waiting for this moment, Noelle Rogers, senior vice president and general manager of Gap Specialty, told me last August. We tested a few times on low-rise and it wasnt until the last 9, 10 months that the customer was ready. Now denim designers are pushing low-rise further. Well definitely see more ultra-rises coming through in 2026, says Susie Draffan, senior denim strategist at WGSN who began tracking low-rise in 2019 when macro trends like a resurgent interest in 90s and Y2K aesthetics put the style on her radar. Mass-market brand Lucky launched an ultra-low-rise flare style (thats an itty-bitty, two-button, 7.25-inch rise) with Addison Rae last August, after the company first spotted her wearing the vintage version in the wild. [Photo: Lucky] Fashion is going to be pushing those extremes, Tamara Reynolds, vice president of the Denim Center of Excellence at Catalyst, the parent company of Lucky Brand. We are really excited about low-rise still, and we’re even more excited about super low-rise. This style was bound to happen. High-rise is a silhouette that’s really held people’s attention for almost 15 years, says Citizens of Humanitys Williams. So, as with anything in fashion, that pendulum swings backward, but when it goes back, it evolves into something new. Part of that evolution is todays range of equally acceptable pant silhouettes: wide-leg baggy, straight, bootcut, flare, and, dare I say, increasingly skinny. Whats most fun about this moment is that while were seeing some strong micro-trends within denimslimmer, straighter, lower-rise cuts are undoubtedly dominating the conversationwere still seeing brands across the market sell nearly every kind of denim shape and style, says Alexandra Avdey, vice president of merchandising at Reformation. In the past, there has almost always been a single must-have style. Right now, theres something for everyone. So pick your poison. The result is sure to be toxic (1. adj., pejorative, a negative association due to the ultra-low-rises inherent ties to an era that correlated beauty with thinness; or 2., adj., complimentary, origin: Britney Spears song; a nostalgic association with naughties cultural icons that brings new and interesting approaches to dress in the current context.) Ultra-low-rise is polarizing. But whether or not you want to hang, its going to be here for a while. Britney Spears onstage at the American Music Awards in 2001 [Photo: Frank Micelotta/ABC/Getty Images] Slow burn, hot stats Data from a cross-section of denim brands is indicating that low-rise is a big business driver. At Citizens of Humanity, its low-slung baggy represents 35% of its business. Four of its top 10 styles are low-rise, according to the company. Agolde since introduced a low-rise bootcut for Spring, which the website describes as a true nod to the early 2000s. Though the company doesn’t plan to release any ultra-low-rise styles, this bootcut is now the companys lowest rise (8 inches) and sits low on the hips. The numbers are even more striking at Reformation. Sales of low-rise denim grew 500% in 2025 compared to 2024. Like Citizens, 4 of Refs top 10 jeans SKUs year to date are low-rise. Its top-selling denim style is its Cary low-rise slouchy wide-leg jean, which overtook its high-rise counterpart. (Hitting about an inch below the navel, Cary feels a bit more like a mid-rise.) [Photo: Reformation] And the style isnt just for the youngest consumers. The company says that low-rise is performing across generations, with 38% of low-rise e-comm sales driven by Gen Z and 30% by millennials. If anything, going low has more to do with a willingness to experiment rather than age. At Lucky, whose customers are predominantly women in their twenties, low-rise sales increased 763% in August 2025 compared to the previous year, and contributed 43% to full price denim sales, compared to 8% the previous year. Gap didnt share specific data, but following a test period that resulted in high sales volumes, the company went all in on low-rise with its long and lean launch with girl group Katseye last August. We’ve seen a huge uptrend that is more U.S. and North American-based starting in basically like August of this year, Citizens CEO Williams told me in late 2025, noting the upswing is all coming from either low-rise or straight leg shapes. View this post on Instagram A post shared by McQueen (@alexandermcqueen) Of course, runways are one of the best signals for what brands will launch down the road, and waistlines are jostling for share. Over the last two seasons, designer labels like Diesel (see its nearly-bumster styles) and Alexander McQueen (revival of its actual 90s bumster styles) have shown off ultra-low-rise styles. Low and natural or high-rise styles held equal share of the denim mix at the A/W 25/26 shows, at 17.8%, with low-rise styles increasing 11.8 percentage points year over year, according to WGSN catwalks data provided to Fast Company. Katseye [Photo: Gap] Cultural emergence Last fall I was scrolling through Instagram and a paparazzi photo of actress Zoë Kravitzmy personal style chimerain baggy low-rise jeans crossed my feed. Kravitz, 37, wore them low on the hip, without a waistband or pockets so theyre flat across the pelvis. They also had an adjustable toggle closure at the ankle. The design felt new. After some recon I learned it was the $325 Still Heres Sport jean that fashion acolytes have been ravenously scooping up. View this post on Instagram Head of Brand Eliza Rolfs told me when I visited the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, store that the connection happened organically, after Kravitzs stylist, Danielle Goldberg, reached out and pulled some styles. Kravitz kept three pairs of the Sport, which Rolfs describes as a more classic approach to low-rise. She’s not the only fan: The brands Pear wash sold out in 25 minutes after its first release, which led to 10,000 people joining a waitlist. The original Sport Jean, which launched in July 2025, sold out four times within its first six months on the market. As with previous trends, many denim designers I spoke with cited street and celebrity style as their early ultra-low-rise indicators, and name-checked Bella and Gigi Hadid as two examples. The members of Katseye are always in hip-bone, thong-strap, or belly-chain-bearing pants. (Thong straps, functionally designed to hide a visible panty line, have now become lucrative new real estate for charms and bedazzling.) So are other Gen Z pop stars like Tate McCray, Addison Rae, or more recently, fellow millennial Charli XCX, 33, who wore a thong-bearing jean to promo her new movie, The Moment. In the beginning of February, stylist Andrew Mukamal dressed Margo Robbie, 35, in super-low leather pants for a look during her Wuthering Heights press tour. @voguegermany #margotrobbie is in London for her #wutheringheights press tour. #voguegermany #margotrobbieofficial (Video: Getty Images) original sound – Thats because many current cultural icons are looking to the irreverence and confidence of early 2000s stars like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, according to Reynolds. Really low-rise denim was a key piece in the outfitting and the entire look. That’s how the Y2K kind of revival came across and it caught like wildfire, she says. Reformation plans to lean even more into Y2K this year, with components like exposed buttons, rivets, seaming details and low-rise boot-cut styles, for instance. Christina Aguilera at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards [Photo: Ron Galella Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images] Nostalgia is a big driver, says Draffan. Interest in that period revived a range of low-rise styles, with 90s-inspired baggy and straight legs as well as bootcut styles from the noughties driving the revival, she adds. But dont just peg ultra-low-rises comeback to a long-simmering cultural fixation on Xtina at the 2001 VMAs. The low-rise revival has a co-dependency with other shifting denim trends like baggy pants. As those baggier fits got lower and lower slung, and they’re belted and theyre hanging off the hips, it gave rise to the midriff, right? asks Reynolds. So that’s where I feel like the rumblings from a design point of view first came. Can design fixes mend cultural flaws? Like anything you wear, denim has direct ties to material and tech innovations as well as the broader sociocultural climate. Back in the day when skinny jeans became a thing, it was primarily because stretch products had evolved to a point where there was so much stretch in the product that you could wear a skin tight jean all day long and be really comfortable, says Williams. Stretch materials remained as waistlines shifted to high-rise in the early to mid-2010s (I was a Citizens of Humanity Rocket devotee), and it made for a skin-tight fit like leggings, which people also couldnt wait to peel off and replace with sweats or actual Lululemon leggings when they got home. [Photo: Cody Lidtke/Still Here] When the pandemic hit, so did the wide-legged pants. It’s super comfortable and you can wear it all day long, says Williams. I think that’s what got people out of their sweatpants from COVID and into wide leg jeans. The most common rise was still around 9 inches (considered high-rise), though. Williams says high-rise jeans have been telling the same fashion story for a long time, and consumers are simply ready for styling that has something fresh to say. You can tell when you lose your attention span and the customer changes gears, she says. I do think there’s just an element that is absolutely cyclical. Kate Moss circa 2005 [Photo: Antony Jones/U.K. Press/Getty Images] When I delivered the news to friends that ultra-low-rise is back, the reaction wasnt very different from what itd be like to share that you got back together with a boyfriend they all secretly hated: healthy skepticism. You have to be hot to wear low-rise, an aggravated friend told me at a party (in this context: hot = 2000s model thin). Cynicism from those of us whove been through the first go-around is fair, because the ultra-low-rise revival calls back to the era we came of age in: dominated by fatphobia and capped by Kate Moss telling WWD one of her mottos is Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. And while contemporary low-rise is in reality more of a wearable mid-rise (Reformation, for instance, dropped the crotch so the wearer could adjust where it sits by sizing up or down), ultra-low-rise, which sits low on the hip bone and creates a more square rather than hourglass shape, is less universally flattering. [Phto: Agolde] While theyre trending right now with Gen Z, there is obviously a huge swath of the market for whom a low-rise will just not appeal, says Draffan, the WGSN strategist. Its a tricky rise to pull off, not to mention that anyone over 30 already did the low-rise at some point in their lives, and isnt keen to go back there, especially Millennials and the mature market. She describes mid and high-rises as more flattering with broader consumer appeal. The good news for the low-rise-averse is that wearable high and mid rises are still in the mix, so those with an aversion to navel exposure can keep a safe distance in the comfortable rise of their choice. For low-rise, the cool thing about denim trends is when a silhouette does come back in style is that it lingers a little bit, rather than fast fashion, [which is] a voracious trend cycle, says Rolfs of Still Here Sport. Denim tends to stick for a couple of years and that has ripple effects in the rest of the garments as well. The leg opening of denim is tapering toward straight, which in turn looks nice with a pair of loafers, which are becoming more popular too, thanks to a prep revival. The customer’s purchasing a lot more than they have, says Williams, who calls straight legs and loafers the new wide leg and Sambas. And itll keep evolving: a stovepipe skinny jean is one of WGSNs key fashion items for 2026. Anatomy of the new low-rise Denim designers I spoke with insist the style is more inclusive this time around, and brands like Gap are showing the style on a variety of body types. The fit of Y2K-era low-rise jeans were a painted-on, tightly fitting second skin. When it comes to today’s aesthetics, it feels much more sophisticated and cool to wear something that sits a little bit away from the body, says Williams. So you’ll see a low-rise iterated, in a way, that has like a bit of ease, maybe bagginess to it so it still looks refined and it has a little bit more of what you would imagine today’s model off duty to have evolved to. [Photos: Agolde (left), Lucky] Williams says the new cuts are easier to wear and have more balance proportions, allowing for a different visual anchor. Now you’re anchoring the jean at that low hip, so the top part is the anchor rather than the legs and the booty as the anchor, she says. That solves the whole host of problems that we’ve all witnessed. [Photos: Agolde (left), Lucky] Designers make lots of micro adjustments to make a low-rise jean look more flattering and proportional. You’re going from a proportion that’s hourglass-shaped to one that sits low and is a little bit more square, and you’re shrinking down all of the proportions, McDonald says of the difference between a high-rise fit and low. To accommodate for this shift in proportions, ultra-low-rise jeans have different pocket scoops, smaller, shorter back pockets, and adjusted spacing between pockets. Whereas the waistband of many skin-tight 2000s era ultra-low-rise was a V-shape in two pieces to be ultra form-fitting, todays typically have a slightly curved waistband for a sense of cheeky boyishness, says McDonald. (Luckys ultra-low-rise does have a V waistband.) One of the things that’s most exciting about a low-rise jean is just how appealing your bum looks, she says. It creates the cutest boyish, bum shape. The curved waistband is meant to prevent gapping, but also helps keep the pant up even though it generally sits at the widest part of the hipbone. [Photo: Still Here] I see all of the women that are adopting this that were afraid of it at first and we’re like, oh, actually it’s great it looks good on them, says Reynolds. It’s all ages, all body types, and all attitudes, and so I’m really proud and impressed with the outcome and the adoption that’s happening across the board. She adds, It’s one of those things you sort of have to get out of your mind and just put it on, right? For anything new, there can be a resistance and you’re like, Oh wait, I love this. I tested a several pairs in my usual size. One of the best was the Gap long and lean 90s loose, which had a touch of stretch and contour waistband which didnt, well, gap. Neither did Still Here’s Sport or Reformations 100% cotton low-rise Cary, although it had the most mid-rise fit in my usual size. Its not foolproof though. Agolde’s low-rise loose epitomized the cool sort of ease you want with low-rise denim: a perfectly stiff, nonchalant straight leg silhouette, balanced with a just-low-enough waistband that had a touch of looseness at the hipthough it did gap to reveal my underwear while seated at the bar. A charm opportunity, if Im brave.
Category:
E-Commerce
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