The Row Margaux: Soft Margaux vs the Original, Specification by Specification
Ask five different people how the Margaux and the Soft Margaux differ and you will hear five confident, conflicting answers. The confusion is entirely understandable: the two bags share a name, a silhouette and a set of signature buckles, and the shopping situation around them changed sharply in 2025. Below is a specification-led comparison rather than an impression-led one, putting measurements, materials, closures, linings and observed prices side by side line by line. Everything here is taken 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. Where a figure is not reliably documented, this article says so rather than guessing, 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 better equipped one. The long version is below.
Two Bags, One Name, and One 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 in place of stiffeners. The Soft Margaux appeared as a related yet separately specified bag, with construction details and product pages of its own. During 2025 the original was withdrawn from third-party retailers, and the brand’s own webstore now leads with the Soft Margaux and the Margaux Shoulder rather than the original.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, though the brand has never officially confirmed it, and that distinction is not pedantry when you are working out what to pay on the secondary market. In practice this means the Soft Margaux is the the row handbags version on sale new, while the original has become a resale proposition. Anyone comparing the two is really comparing a current product with an archive one, and that changes how the specification differences should be weighted.
The Specifications, Side by Side
The clearest way to see the difference is to isolate the features the Soft version adds and work through 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 reads from across a street. Protective metal feet lift the base away from the ground. An interior toggle closure gives the open-top shape a way to shut. The profile can be cinched or released because of the belted side gussets. A zip pocket and card slots turn a deep cavity into something organised. These are set out in the table with the observed 2026 figures for the versions sold new.
| Specification detail | Soft Margaux 10 and 12 | Original Margaux |
|---|---|---|
| Protective metal feet | Included | Not in the specification |
| Interior toggle closure | Present | Absent from the specification |
| Belted side gussets | Fitted | Not specified |
| Zip pocket | On the 12 | Not specified |
| Card slots | One on the 10 and two on the 12 | Not in the specification |
| Price, observed 2026 | $3,650 and $4,350 | Secondary market only |
Materials, Outside and In
The Soft Margaux 10 and 12 are both listed as 100 percent calfskin in a matte grained finish, and both are lined in cotton herringbone. The lining choice reveals plenty about the brand’s priorities: a cotton herringbone interior is a textile decision, not a branding one, and it holds shape without introducing the plastic feel of a coated logo jacquard. Further up, the Margaux Shoulder 12 is lined in 100 percent lambskin, softer and more easily marked and considerably more expensive to work with. Across the wider family the exterior materials include grained calfskin, saddle calfskin, suede, canvas paired with leather, and nylon, so a Margaux is not automatically a smooth-leather bag. On the brand’s own product pages, Made in Italy is given 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.
Buckles, Fittings and 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 alter 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 drops that arrangement for elongated tubular handles and narrowed gusseted side panels, designed from the outset to sit under the arm. Where the requirement is one The Row bag that goes hands-free without a strap, the Shoulder is the answer, not the Soft.
Reading the Sizes and the Numbers
Because the number in the name is simply the bag’s width in inches, the family is 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. At 12 x 9 x 7.5 inches, the Soft Margaux 12 keeps the depth and adds two inches of width and two of height, which is why most buyers settle on it for daily use. At 14.75 x 9 x 5 inches, the Margaux Shoulder 12 is the widest and shallowest of the three notwithstanding 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. 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.
Prices Now, and What Resale Is Doing
In observed 2026 market pricing the Soft Margaux 10 sits at $3,650 and the Soft Margaux 12 at $4,350, with the Margaux Shoulder 12 at $4,900. Those figures place the whole family in the collection’s top band, next to 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. A major resale authenticator places new Margaux bags in the $5,000 to $9,000 range, which is a useful sanity check: 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 Version to Buy
Want the bag you can genuinely purchase new, with a warranty of availability and the fuller specification? The Soft Margaux is the straightforward answer. Go for the 10 if you carry little and want the most sculptural version of the shape, and for the 12 if you want a working bag, since the second card slot and the zip pocket exist only 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 precisely that. Pursue the original on resale only if you specifically want the archive version and you are comfortable buying without metal feet, a toggle closure or interior organisation. Whichever one you pick, note that the brand operates no public authenticity coding system at all, so verification rests on 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
- Size comes next: the 10 for occasion carry and the 12 for daily use
- Material follows, and remember that canvas and seasonal colours discount on resale
- Only then consider an original on the secondary market
