Considering buying a Naghedi St. Barths tote? I am sharing all the details of this splurge purchase just in case you are on the fence about buying it.
I finally got the Naghedi St. Barths tote, and I have to admit…I was skeptical. Not about the bag itself, exactly. I had been seeing it everywhere for what felt like forever. The woven structure and colors were what initially stood out to me and I fell in love pretty instantly with the bright yellow color (called Ochre) on their site. I watched it for months, realized the color was seasonal, watched it sell out, and then made a mental note to check it out this year.
What I didn’t understand was the price…surely there had to be a dupe right? What is so special about a tote bag (I have size medium) that it warrants a $325 price tag? At this price point, I wanted to know if I was actually getting something special or simply paying for a name.
So, naturally, before buying the real thing, I went down the Amazon-dupe rabbit hole. I looked at them, read the reviews, even tried a few, and while some of the dupes are surprisingly cute and absolutely worth considering if you just want the look, they didn’t quite scratch the same itch for me.
This year for Mother’s Day, Dane surprised me with the St. Barths Medium Tote in Ochre and now that I’ve actually carried it around, I get it.
Naghedi St. Barths Tote Review
The first thing I noticed when I pulled it out of the box was the material. It’s soft and flexible, but it has a little bit of structure to it. If I had to compare the feel to anything, I’d say it reminds me of a scuba suit. Not in a bad way at all, it has that slightly spongy, smooth, substantial feel that makes the bag feel much more substantial than a typical woven tote.
It’s also incredibly lightweight for how much bag you’re getting, which is important because the St. Barths is the kind of tote you can actually fill. And I mean fill. My laptop, 40-ounce Stanley water bottle, sunglasses, a sweatshirt, makeup bag, and wallet all fit in it comfortably with room to spare., Trust me when I say that whatever has somehow accumulated in your purse…this bag can handle it without immediately looking like it’s fighting for its life.
It looks expensive because it is well made
There is a difference between a bag that is expensive and a bag that looks expensive.
The St. Barths falls into the second category for me. The weaving is what really makes it. It has that relaxed look that keeps it from feeling overly polished, but everything still looks intentional, and because the design is so simple, it doesn’t feel like something I’m going to get tired of six months from now. This is where the quality really differs from the dupes I saw on Amazon. Every single one I received had fake leather for the weave, the color was painted on in some cases, and some even arrived with the color worn off parts of the weave. It just looked cheap and wasteful.
The color is also very vibrant. The photo below is also the color comparison to what I’d consider a true yellow/orange (the Veuve box), so you can see the Ochre color kind of picks up more of a yellow/neon, but then when it’s against something more orange (like my tablecloth above), it looks more subdued.
So, is it worth the price?
This is where I have to be honest – this bag is expensive. I don’t think you need a $300-plus tote. There are plenty of less expensive bags that will carry your things perfectly well, and if you’re mostly buying it because you’ve seen it all over Instagram and want the aesthetic, I’d probably tell you to try an Amazon dupe first. But after owning the real thing, I can also understand why people keep buying Naghedi bags.
The material feels good, the bag is lightweight, it holds a ridiculous amount without feeling bulky, and it has that rare quality of looking put-together without trying too hard.
So would I buy it again? Honestly, yes. Would I have felt better about the purchase if it cost $100 less? Absolutely. But now that I own it, I’m glad I went with the original.
It’s become one of those bags I can grab without thinking about where I’m going or what I’m wearing. Beach day? Yep. Airport? Definitely. Grocery store? Sure. Lunch? It works there, too. After trying both, I’m firmly in the camp of: the dupes are good, but the original is better.
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