There’s a lot of controversy surrounding Mansur Gavriel handbags. People either love them or hate them. Personally, I love their simplistic design, high quality material, durability and moderate price point for a designer bag. I carry mine frequently. Love them or hate them, procuring one is even more controversial. Demand is high and supply is kept purposely low. For some, the exclusivity and complicated process of obtaining one is a major turn off. For me, it’s a fun challenge. After three failed attempts to get my hands on one during a restock, I finally succeeded. Here is what I learned. Forewarning, these tips are a little crazy, but if you’ve been trying in vain to get one, I hope you’ll find them helpful.
1) Timing
Many websites will tell you that scoring a Mansur Gavriel bag favors the prompt. As I learned the first three times, prompt can be a relative term. Let me unpack it for you.
The restock goes live at 11am ET. Rather than waiting until the clock on your computer hits 11am, begin refreshing the page 5 minutes prior. And when I say refresh the page, I mean consistently hit the refresh button for five consecutive minutes starting at 10:55am.
Yes, it’s totally obsessive. And yes, you’ll need to totally clear your calendar for those five minutes. No checking email, taking a phone call, etc. You are glued to your screen. Each time I was able to purchase a bag, I got in before the clock on my computer hit 11am.
2) No browsing
This should be obvious, but before the magic hour arrives you need to know exactly what bag you want to purchase. There will be zero time to click through the colors or sizes of a certain style once you actually get in.
The Mansur Gavriel site is currently up, so do your browsing now. I even recommend doing a trial run. Want the mini bucket in black/ballerina? You should know that style is the 6th one down on the list and the color black is the 3rd style over. Again, totally crazy and obsessive, but it works.
Also, this is not the time to be greedy or to be gracious and offer to buy one for a friend who can’t get to her computer at 11am. The whole process moves so fast that you’ll only have time to add one bag to your cart before it’s too late. One bag per customer or it’s “no soup for you!”
3) Copy/Paste Shortcuts
Type out your credit card number in a Word document and copy it. When the time comes to enter that information, simply hit [Ctrl v for PC, Command v for Mac] to paste it into the appropriate field. You can type [Ctrl v] much faster than you can type your 16-digit credit card number. Every second counts.
4) Grace Period
After a lot of backlash from potential customers, Mansur Gavriel announced that each person would get a 5-minute grace period to checkout once a bag had been added to their cart. My advice? Don’t trust it.
During each of my failed attempts to score a bag, I had what I wanted in my cart and got kicked out while entering my billing information. Perhaps my computer was being glitchy or I temporarily entered the Bermuda Triangle, but the grace period didn’t work for me. If you get a bag into your cart, move baby, move!
So after all of this crazy and obsessive behavior, what if you still didn’t manage to get a bag?
Email Mansur Gavriel customer service and ask them which of their stockists will be carrying the style and color bag you want. I found their customer service to be incredibly kind and helpful. Once you get that list, start calling each of those stores and add your name to their waiting list. You’ll have to wait between 2-4 months (depending on the store and the bag you want) before the time comes, but at least you’ll be on the list. Each store handles this process differently, but most are first come, first served. So remember, a few months from now when you get a phone call from a number you don’t recognize, answer it. It could be Steven Alan calling to say they have your bag.
Here are some stockists that carry Mansur Gavriel. You can also visit the Stockists link on their website.
Steven Alan
Bird
Net-a-Porter
Bergdorf Goodman
Moda Operandi
Barneys
Matches Fashion
I hope you found this information helpful. May the Force be with you tomorrow.
This is great! I giggled and smiled through the read! May the force be with YOU!
Hehe thank you! It reminds me of our many shopping excursions where we found really great deals and had to frantically snap them up before someone else did. 🙂
Genius….thank so much, I got my lady bag!!!!
Got one too! Thanks for the tip. How do I get a second? Sign up as someone else?
This was pretty funny! I was successful today! Got my mini buckets in black/flamma and cammello/rosa. <3
Ahh, congratulations!! Such a beautiful bag. Thanks for reading! 🙂
Oooh, two bags – nice work!!! Thanks for stopping by and commenting! Congrats on your two beauties!
Yay!! So glad you got one!! You can try to add 2 bags to your cart – they allow you to buy the same style as long as it's a different color. I know a select few have been successful getting 2 bags during a restock (I don't think I'm that fast). Also, start calling Steven Alan today and put yourself on the waitlist for the bag you weren't able to get. They have about 30 locations nationwide. Good luck! 🙂
Thank you for sharing your advise. I really enjoyed how well written your article was. Do you happen to know how often these online restocks happen?
Aw, thank you so much! I appreciate you stopping by and commenting! So far this year they have restocked in March, May, July and October. I don't suspect there will be another restock before the end of the year, but they could surprise us. If you missed out today, definitely start calling Steven Alan and Bird to get on the wait list. They will probably be delivering their stock in November/early Dec. Good luck!
I did the same thing at today's relaunch! It was actually my first time trying and I logged on around 10:50am, refreshed here and there until it hit 10:59am at which I basically clicked refresh every second! I managed to snatch the Lady Bag in Navy and checked out by 11:05am 🙂 I think once you proceed to check out to enter your payment, it's pretty secure? I was surprised to still find the bucket bag in black/flamma still available when I tried to grab it after at 11:10am and still managed to get to check out!
Congrats on your Lady Bag!! Talk about a successful first run – nice job! I do think they've improved their checkout process, but the first 3 times I tried to get a bag during their restock I lost out while entering my shipping address. It literally just disappeared and kicked me back out to the home page. So happy for you and your purchase! Enjoy it!
Any comments on black large lady bag vs black bucket bag? I bought the large lady bag from another website (so now I have both sizes of lady bags). It arrived and I find leather quite stiff, so bag looks less feminine. Does this black leather fall better on a bucket bag? Have not seen an actual one yet. I've been obsessed with MG bags lately, can you tell, haha.
Hi! I understand the obsession, I love them too. 🙂 The black leather on the bucket bag is also quite stuff. Mine has relaxed a little with use, but not a ton. It really stays in that "bucket" shape. My white one is the tumbled leather, which has a totally different feel. It's incredibly soft and malleable. Some people don't like that because you have to fill it up in order for it to maintain its shape. I would say that the stiffness of the bucket bag is the same as the lady bag. Hope this helps!
Thanks so much! You sound like you've seen them all…deciding between black large lady bag and black/flamma bucket…any thoughts? Have you seen the brandy bucket?
Both are great choices. I personally would go with the lady bag because you can carry it on your elbow or your shoulder, there's more versatility. Proportionally, it looks good on short and tall women. The regular sized bucket tends to overwhelm shorter frames. Because there's only one way to carry it, you can't really play with the proportions like with the lady back. The brandy bucket is very pretty. Just beware that it will get darker over time. So if you're in love with the color you see online, know that it won't stay that way forever. 🙂
Thanks again….all this shop talk has been a good diversion for me as I'm going through stressful times. So this is a great escape 🙂 you are so right about the versatility of the lady bag! I love the design, but I'm waiting for for my sand one to arrive to see whether the smaller lady bag size is a better fit. I love the black but because leather is so stiff, the large size tends to look so boxy and less feminine. If the calf leather looks better in this style, I may return the black and try buying a blue at next relaunch. Isn't this crazy?? I've don't think I've ever been so obsessed with any other brand or style before! I think it's also because this hasn't hit the Philippines yet, where I'm from. I remember I loved the givenchy Pandora when it first came out, but it lost its charm when I'd see so many ladies in the mall carrying all the sizes and colors…same thing with goyard. I hope it doesn't happen with this brand!
I think it's great you love the brand so much. 🙂 Eventually, I think interest will level off, but I don't think Mansur Gavriel is in any danger of over saturating like the brands you mentioned. Keep me posted on what you decide once your lady bag arrives! 🙂 And all the best to you in these stressful times. I hope things are already looking up. 🙂
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Thanks…things are getting a bit better by the day 🙂
The smaller lady bag arrived in sand, and I love the calf leather! Turns out the large size will be more practical for everyday wear and for travel, but I'll definitely make use of the smaller one too. It"s really the vegetable tanned leather (what does that mean anyway??) on the large lady bag that's giving it the boxy feel. If this were in calf skin, I wouldn't think twice about keeping it. How I wish it would be easy to get the large one in blue, since that comes in calf leather. I've asked MG where I can get one, and they said their only stockist that has it is a store in Germany!! This really sounds like a marketing ploy haha…they intentionally make their merchandise so scarce…
So now I'm thinking if I should risk returning the black large lady (I only have till next week to return) and try getting a blue one during next re-launch in December, if I'm still in the US by then. It may not look too special anymore if I have 3 colors in the same style, don't you think? I have to say though that it hasn't been easy for me to find a top handle style that I really like…this one really caught my eye…AND my credit card 😉
Glad to hear it! 🙂
So vegetable tanned leather is leather that hasn't been treated with anything (no conditioners, top coats, etc.) – that's why it's so stiff. The attraction people have to it is that it's essentially leather in it's purest form. You're right though, compared to the calf leather it has a totally different feel. It's a bummer to hear the only blue lady bag is in Germany! If the blue one is at the top of your list and you're not a big fan of the black (vegetable tanned leather), then I would return the black one and try for the blue one during the next restock. I think their most popular lady bag colors are the black, camello and brandy, so I bet you'll be able to score a blue one. Keep me posted!
Oh so the more popular colours are the veg tanned leather ones…The black is actually my first choice (even the black/flamma bucket is hard to resist), I'm just thinking the blue calf leather will give it a less boxy, portfolio bag look. It's very hard to make these decisions when you can't actually see and touch each bag before buying them! Is there another tote or top handle bag you'd recommend, in blue?
Yeah, that's kind of the trade off – you either get your top choice color (black, it sounds like) in the leather you don't like (veg tanned), or the leather you like (calf) in your 2nd choice color (blue).
Gucci's Swing Tote is one of the best bags I've ever owned. It's a comparable price point to the lady bag and the leather is amazing. I have used mine everyday, taken it on airplanes, the beach, etc. and it looks as good as the day I got it. I seriously don't know how the leather stays so pristine. The lining in canvas, which some people don't like, but I think it's great because it makes it much lighter to carry. Here's the one I own: https://www.in-spades.com/2014/12/black-tan.html
It also comes in black and blue. Good luck!