The Row Margaux, Soft vs Original: The Specifications Compared
Ask five different people how the Margaux and the Soft Margaux differ and you will hear five confident, conflicting answers. It is understandable confusion, given that the two share a name, a silhouette and a set of signature buckles, and that the shopping situation around them changed sharply in 2025. What follows is a specification-led comparison rather than an impression-led one: measurements, materials, closures, linings and observed prices, set against each other line by line. Everything here comes from what the brand states on its product pages and from prices observed in the market in 2026, which are observations rather than 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. In short, the Soft is not a cheaper or lazier Margaux; it is the more equipped of the two. The longer version is set out 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. Related but specified separately, the Soft Margaux arrived with its own the row bag vintage top handle construction details and its own product pages. Over the course of 2025 the original was pulled from third-party retailers, and the brand’s own webstore now shows 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 matters rather than being pedantry when you are setting a price on the secondary market. What that means in practice is simple: the Soft Margaux is buyable new, and the original is 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 ranked.
Two Spec Sheets, One Table
The cleanest way to see the difference is to isolate the features the Soft version adds and check 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 appears from across a street. Protective metal feet hold the base away from the ground. An interior toggle closure supplies the closing mechanism the open-top shape otherwise lacks. Belted side gussets let the profile be cinched or released. A zip pocket and card slots turn a deep cavity into something organised. The table sets these out with the observed 2026 figures for the versions sold new.
| Feature | Soft Margaux 10 and 12 | Original Margaux |
|---|---|---|
| Protective metal feet | Fitted as standard | Not specified |
| Interior toggle closure | Included | Not part of the specification |
| Belted side gussets | Fitted | Not specified |
| Zip pocket | Present on the 12 | Not in the specification |
| Card slots | A single slot on the 10, two on the 12 | Absent from the specification |
| Market price, observed 2026 | $3,650 and $4,350 | Available on resale only |
Exterior Materials and Linings
The Soft Margaux 10 and 12 are each specified as 100 percent calfskin in a matte grained finish, with cotton herringbone lining in both. 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 bringing in 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 exteriors extend to 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 printed for the Soft Margaux 10 and 12 and for the Margaux Shoulder 12. Suede and canvas versions seem different in the hand and, more importantly, behave differently on resale.
Hardware, Buckles and Handles
Hardware on the Soft Margaux is palladium-plated and finished matte rather than polished, consistent with the rest of the collection. Any Margaux is signed by its pair of adjustable side buckles, and on genuine examples those buckles carry engraving, as do the base feet where feet are fitted. Purpose rather than decoration is the point of the buckles, as they are what enables the belted gussets to change the bag’s width. The Soft Margaux 10 and 12 share a 5-inch handle drop, which is a hand-carry or crook-of-the-elbow figure and not a shoulder one, so both come with a removable shoulder strap to make up for it. The Margaux Shoulder 12 replaces that arrangement entirely with elongated tubular handles and narrowed gusseted side panels, so it is designed from the start to sit under the arm. If you want one The Row bag that works hands-free without a strap, the Shoulder is the answer rather than the Soft.
Sizes and What the Numbers Mean
Because the number in the name is simply the bag’s width in inches, the family is easier to navigate than most. At 10 x 7 x 7.5 inches, the Soft Margaux 10 is genuinely compact yet unusually deep 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. 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. A Soft Margaux 15 is in circulation, while a Margaux 17 in a leather-and-canvas execution has been carried by Selfridges. No verifiable retail price exists for either, so read any figure quoted for them as an asking price and not a documented one.
The Money: Retail and Resale
Observed 2026 market pricing places the Soft Margaux 10 at $3,650, the Soft Margaux 12 at $4,350 and the Margaux Shoulder 12 at $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. Less firm secondary figures agree, with the Margaux reported to sell frequently at around 40 percent above retail, Fashionphile resale reported up roughly 44 percent year on year, and The RealReal reporting pre-owned Margaux sales averaging about 15 percent over original retail. One major resale authenticator places 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 Version Suits You
The straightforward answer for anyone who wants the bag they can actually purchase new, with a warranty of availability and the fuller specification, is the Soft Margaux. 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. 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 just 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. Whatever the choice, the brand runs no public authenticity coding system at all, 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.
- Answer hand-carry or shoulder first of all, as it divides Soft from Shoulder immediately
- Then size: the 10 for occasion carry, the 12 for daily use
- Then material, remembering that canvas and seasonal colours discount on resale
- Only then consider an original on the secondary market
