CELINE TRIOMPHE CANVAS BAG REVIEW

 

Are you thinking about purchasing the Celine Triomphe Canvas Bag in the medium size? You’ve come to the right place. I am here to review the bag.

 

As I write this, Hedi Slimane is long gone as creative director at the house of Celine. I had previously covered this topic when the news first broke out earlier this year, April 2024 to be exact. I have so many thoughts about it. Slimane picked up after the beloved Phoebe Philo left and as it is with any change it was really hard to accept the 180 degree change we saw at Celine.

Yet, there is something to be said about Slimane’s creativity. There was something about the 16 bag that was his first at the house of Celine. It was very Slimane and we thought we would see more of that Old Parisian Chic vibe come back, but it quickly focused heavily on the Triomphe logo. I remember when I saw that triomphe bag in natural calfskin for the first time as part of Spring 2020, I thought it was so chic, so Parisian, so ‘hot’. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. But then it was everywhere, and the logo was on all the different Celine bags, shoes and accessories. Sort of like the YSL logo at Saint Laurent. I discussed this heavily in my blog post.

For a variety of reasons which we will get to in a minute, I gave in and bought this Celine Canvas Triomphe bag. So if you’re on the hunt, I hope this review benefits you.

 

This blog post is all about the Celine Triomphe Canvas Bag Review in the medium size. I hope it helps you decide.

 

THE PATTERN

There are many reasons why one would love this bag’s Triomphe pattern. The logo represents the history of the House of Celine and Slimane is a master of going through the archives and bringing back old styles. I also personally love the Arc de Triomphe itself. I visit that spot on every trip to Paris, I’ve even climbed to the top. So, I really wanted to have a bag that reminded me of that.

I also always wanted to have a Canvas bag but never really liked the LV monogram style, that pattern was never for me. But I think there is a vintage look that canvas bags give that no amount of leather can, sort of like an ode to the 40’s and 50’s. Canvas also goes with anything and this is coming from someone who doesn’t like wearing more than three colors. In a strange way, canvas looks chic, but also doesn’t stand out when the color palette isn’t a match. Having said all of that, I think I had a love hate relationship with canvas in general. I always associated it with LV, which made me go back and forth.

 

THE STYLE

This bag has a very interesting shape, it isn’t your typical bucket bag, it’s more of a rectangular bottom with round edges and the bag tapers out all the way to the top. I own several bucket bags but the shape of this bag is quite unique. The clasp is what I believe is called a spring snap. All the hardware on the bag is engraved with ‘Celine’.

Besides the triomphe pattern, the leather trims on the bag are what sets it apart from LV canvas bags. Those are made of treated calfskin, they don’t easily stain or absorb water. The very first time I used this bag, it rained heavily. I remember just patting it dry when I got back home and it still looked pristine. The leather piece in the center of the bag gives it a very interesting look in my opinion. The bag looks more like a bucket bag, when filled to the brim and left open.

 

HOW TO WEAR IT

The bag is meant to be worn over the shoulder or cross body. Despite the adjustable strap – the shortest option worn over the shoulder still hit me on the hip. I couldn’t adjust the strap, as I was told I would lose warranty on the bag – glad I asked. I wasn’t particularly a fan of where it hit me, but I was willing to put up with it.

You can adjust the strap so you can carry it cross body as well, which looks pretty cool, but I don’t think it’s made to be used crossbody and if you do so you will notice very quickly that it affects the shape of the bag. It created a dent on the side that faced my body.

 

SIZES

This bag comes in a small (7 x 9 x 5 in) and medium size (9 x 11 x 7 in). I purchased the medium size.
If you have not seen those bags, for reference the small size is slightly larger than the Mini Mini Bucket Bag from Mansur Gavriel, and the medium is larger than the Mini Bucket Bag.

I think this bag looks much nicer in the medium size. Worn over the shoulder gives it such a Parisian look.

 

WEIGHT

This bag is extremely light. The weight you carry is that of the things you fill it with (honestly), it is so light.

 

WHAT IT FITS

It can comfortably fit a book, an umbrella, wallet, key pouch, make-up pouch, sunglasses and earphones. Perfect amount of things to take out and about with you.

 

PURCHASE

So this bag came on my radar in 2021, and I went back and forth quite a bit and purchased it two years later. It took me a very long time to decide, and I honestly still wasn’t sure when I was buying it, ironically. This is the only purchase that I continued to hesitate on, and there was more to my hesitation than just canvas material I mentioned before, we will get to that in a minute.

 

PRICE

The bag costs 1800 USD + tax in the US, close to 2000 USD in NYC. It costs 1450 EUR in Europe, plus you get 12% VAT back if you shopped in France, so with today’s conversion rates it would be close to 1300 USD with your tax refund incorporated.

 

USE & DURABILITY

I used this bag for maybe 7 months, and there were times when the bag was too full to close, so I left it open. But most of the time it was full but would close easily. I traveled with it on an 18-day trip, where I mostly used this bag. But of course, I babied it as it was relatively new, especially in airports where I placed it in a dustbag. I used an insert that matched the exact color of the interior and it kept its shape, it was scratch resistant all throughout. There were times when I was so sure I scratched the bag, but when I checked there was absolutely nothing.

 

CONS: CLASP

The spring snap isn’t my favorite. I would have loved to see a more vintage type of closure especially on a bag like this. Like a hook type lock that Phoebe Philo era Celine bags had.

 

CONS: STITCHING

This is where I struggled to keep this bag. The bag was so light, the canvas was so thin, and the leather that trimmed the top edges of the bag was also super thin.

The area where the leather trim met the spring snap was where the subpar quality of this bag showed. Hard to explain but the contrasting white stitching is essentially connecting the trim to the canvas, and then at one point its connecting all three – the leather trim, the canvas and the middle leather piece holding the spring snap, then back to the trim and canvas (please check out the photo to understand what I mean). Because of the difference in material and thickness, and frequently opening and closing the bag, the stitch creates stress over the trim in the area right next to the snap. I could see the thread starting to go through the leather trim, and I couldn’t keep the bag for another day.

I visited the Celine store down in SoHo and my SA was very nice to me, asked me to bring the bag to fix the issue, but I revisited my issues with this bag overall. It was time to sell it.

 

This blog post is all about the Celine Triomphe Canvas Bag Review in the medium size. I hope it helps you decide.

 

As always, thank you for stopping by and reading. If this content interested you, you might want to follow my Instagram account @girlontheues

See you next time,

Girl on the Upper East Side

Xx

 

If this blog post interested you, you might want to check out my The Row Margaux 15 Bag Review, Celine Luggage Bag Review and The Row City Flip Flop Review.