Bottega Veneta Opera Intrecciato Leather Bag | Fabulous Purple Woven Leather Shoulder Bag

Posted on: Aug 14

Bottega Veneta does woven bags better than anyone else out there. Perhaps it's because the label's design sense is so chic and minimal that even woven designs turn out elegant instead of artsy-crafty looking. This Opera intrecciato bag is a great example of how its design approach comes to bear on traditional materials.

The grape-y purple leather on the Opera initially gave me somewhat mixed feelings. On the one hand, I love the way the color is bright, but slightly muted. On the other, it is still purple, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about purple as a good color for an everyday bag. Eventually, the combination of style and color won me over, and now I am a little in awe of the Opera's beauty.

The shape of the Opera is really classic and practical. The softly rounded bottom and wide sides create a lot of volume for a reasonably-sized bag. You can wear it over the shoulder or across the body. While I'm not always a fan of cross-body bags, the slim straps on this one make it comfortable and lovely worn this way.

At $1,750, the Opera is a mid-priced designer bag: expensive, but on the low end of high-priced. It's versatile enough to wear in a lot of different situations, which might make it worth the expense.