For most of the 2010s the dominant handbag was rigid, boxy and photographed well, which is not the same thing as being pleasant to carry. The correction has been toward bags that collapse slightly around their contents, taking cues from the hobo and baguette shapes of the late 1990s. A soft body also solves a practical problem, because it moulds to the body rather than digging into it. The coach teri shoulder bag belongs squarely to that lineage and is deliberately unstructured in a way the house's frame bags are not.

The standard Teri in leather is the base, and the signature canvas version is the volume seller because the pattern hides wear. Quilted Teri bags add structure back through stitching rather than through a frame, which is a smarter solution than lining it. The Soft Teri goes further in the other direction and is the most collapsed shape in the group. Teri Mini crossbody bags in leather, signature canvas and with bows shrink the same silhouette to a phone-and-cards size, and the signature beaded satin version is the evening piece.

Unstructured bags are comfortable and they make finding anything inside genuinely harder, because there is no shape holding the contents in place. A small internal pouch fixes most of that and is worth adding. The single shoulder strap is short by design, so layering under a winter coat is awkward rather than impossible. Beaded satin is a special occasion material that will snag on knitwear, which is easy to forget when you are buying it in summer. If you take one thing away, the signature canvas version is the one that survives daily use and the mini is the one you will actually reach for at night.