Soft Margaux vs the Original Margaux at The Row, Spec by Spec
Ask five people what the difference is between the Margaux and the Soft Margaux and you will get five confident and 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 moved sharply in 2025. Below is a specification-led comparison instead of an impression-led one, putting measurements, materials, closures, linings and observed prices side by side line by line. All of it comes from what the brand states on its own product pages and from prices observed in the market in 2026 — observations, not an official price list. Where a figure is not reliably documented, this article says so rather than guessing, since 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 original Margaux is the flagship the brand built its handbag reputation on, an unlined-looking tote whose structure comes from leather thickness and panel shaping rather than from stiffeners. The Soft Margaux appeared https://rowbag.com/shoulder-bags/ as a related yet separately specified bag, with construction details and product pages of its own. During 2025 the original was removed from third-party retailers, and the brand’s own webstore now puts up the Soft Margaux and the Margaux Shoulder rather than the original. Reports of its discontinuation are widespread, but no official confirmation has ever come from the brand, and that difference counts rather than being pedantry when you are setting a price on the secondary market. In practice, the Soft Margaux is the one you can buy new and 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 weighed.
Two Spec Sheets, Compared
The clearest way to see the difference is to isolate the features the Soft version adds and work through them one at a time. Five of them exist, and as a group they change daily behaviour rather than how the bag looks from across a street. Protective metal feet hold the base away from the ground. An interior toggle closure gives the open-top shape a way to close. Belted side gussets let the profile be cinched or released. A zip pocket and card slots convert a deep cavity into something organised. The table sets these out with the observed 2026 figures for the versions sold new.
| Specification | Soft Margaux 10 and 12 | Original Margaux |
|---|---|---|
| Protective metal feet | Fitted | Not part of the specification |
| Interior toggle closure | Included | Not part of the specification |
| Belted side gussets | Fitted as standard | Not specified |
| Zip pocket | Fitted on the 12 | Not specified |
| Card slots | A single slot on the 10, two on the 12 | Not specified |
| Price, observed 2026 | $3,650 and $4,350 | Resale only |
Exterior Materials and Linings
Both the Soft Margaux 10 and 12 are stated as 100 percent calfskin in a matte grained finish, and both are lined in cotton herringbone. A good deal 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. Across the wider family the exteriors include grained calfskin, saddle calfskin, suede, canvas paired with leather, and nylon, so 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. Suede and canvas versions feel different in the hand and, more importantly, behave differently on resale.
The Hardware, the Buckles and the Handles
On the Soft Margaux the hardware is palladium-plated, matte rather than polished in finish, matching the rest of the collection. The signature element on any Margaux is its pair of adjustable side buckles, and on genuine examples the buckles are engraved, as are the base feet where feet are fitted. Those buckles do real work rather than decoration: they are what lets the belted gussets change the width of the bag. A 5-inch handle drop is common to the Soft Margaux 10 and 12, which puts it in hand-carry or crook-of-the-elbow territory rather than shoulder territory, 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. 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 Mean
The name’s number gives nothing more than the bag’s width in inches, and that makes the family easier to navigate than most. The Soft Margaux 10 measures 10 x 7 x 7.5 inches, a genuinely compact bag with unusual depth for its footprint. The Soft Margaux 12 measures 12 x 9 x 7.5 inches, holding the same depth while adding two inches of width and two of height, and it is the size most buyers settle on for daily use. The Margaux Shoulder 12 measures 14.75 x 9 x 5 inches, so despite the 12 in its name it is the widest and shallowest of the three, since 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.
Prices Now, 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. Those figures place the whole family in the collection’s top band, alongside the India and Agnes top handles and the Marlo totes. The secondary market picture is an unusual one: the Rebag CLAIR 2025 report recorded the Margaux Tote at 107 percent value retention, inside a brand-level figure of 97 percent that lifted the label into the report’s unicorn tier for the first time. Softer secondary figures point in the same direction: the Margaux is reported to sell frequently at around 40 percent above retail, Fashionphile resale is reported up roughly 44 percent year on year, and The RealReal reports pre-owned Margaux sales averaging about 15 percent over original retail. One major resale authenticator sets new Margaux bags in the $5,000 to $9,000 range, and that is a useful sanity check, because anything advertised in the hundreds is almost certainly counterfeit. None of this is investment advice, and it is worth remembering that canvas, nylon and seasonal-colour versions discount rather than appreciate.
Which One to Buy
Want the bag you can really purchase 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. 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 the choice, the brand runs no public authenticity coding system whatsoever, so verification comes down 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, and buy whatever colour you like if it does not.
- Decide hand-carry or shoulder first, because that splits Soft from Shoulder immediately
- Then decide size, with the 10 for occasion carry and the 12 for daily use
- Material follows, and remember that canvas and seasonal colours discount on resale
- Consider an original on the secondary market only at that point
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