CRAVINGS: Louis Vuitton Noé

It’s no secret that bucket bags have become quite the must-have since last year. It took me a while for them to grow on me, but now I have officially fallen for the convenient every-day bag. There were quite a few different bucket bags on my radar, including the obvious Mansur Gavriel, this version by Saint Laurent and a few others. In the end, however, I kept coming back to the Noé by Louis Vuitton.

“In strict chronological terms, the Noé is the second oldest Louis Vuitton bag. Its birth date of 1932 places itself at the start of an exceptional decade that saw the creation of other Louis Vuitton icons: the Speedy, the Alma and the Keepall.
The story of its creation is the stuff of legend. Looking for a stylish way to transport his valuable vintages, a champagne producer placed a special order with Gaston-Louis Vuitton. He designed a timelessly simple bucket shape, which could hold four bottles upright and a fifth upside down, secured with a supple leather drawstring. He called the bag Noé – in reference, it is said, to the biblical hero who, when he left the Ark after the Flood, planted vines on the mountains of Ararat.” (via)

After some research, I finally decided that I wanted my black, timeless bucket bag to be the Noé. And since the bag holds it’s origins many years ago, I also wanted a bag with some history, which is one of the reasons that I decided to get in second hand via Vestiaire Collective. The other reason being the price! The bag was listed for 950€, which was over my personal budget. So I made the seller an offer of 800€. To my surprise, she quickly accepted. I also had a 200€ gift card, so in the end, the bag cost me 600€, which is a pretty amazing deal to me, considering a new Noé currently comes in at close to 1.500€! After the bag was cleared as authentic by Vestiaire Collective, I received it 5 days later. The leather is in amazing condition, which is why I decided on this specific bag. It was listed as being a present that was never used, which definitely explains the exceptional state it is in. The only thing that worried me a bit was the hardware, which had aged quite a bit. Even though Vestiaire Collective guarantees authenticity, I still wanted to be 200% sure and stopped by the Louis Vuitton boutique here in Vienna last weekend to have the bag checked out. After two separate sales ladies looked it over carefully, they came over and actually congratulated me on the amazing buy. Turns out, the bag was made in France in 1995, and I am now the proud owner of a 20-year old Noé that is in absolutely perfect condition. The ladies at LV told me that they had never seen a bag this old with leather so little worn. Personally, I am tempted to keep it in it’s dust bag for a little longer to keep the perfect state, but then again, bags are made to be worn, and the Noé was made to carry champagne – so it might as well carry my belongings.