I've Become Completely Re-Obsessed With The Prada Cahier Bag

The Prada Cahier and I have something in common—we both date back to 2016. For me, it was the year I started working at PurseBlog (crazy, I know!), and for Prada, it was the year the Cahier burst onto the handbag scene.

Like most handbag collectors, I relate many of my bags to different times in my life. I’ve talked about this before. While I don’t exactly miss any of the bags I’ve since parted ways with, I often think about them as they make me nostalgic for certain times in my life.

While I don’t own a Cahier Bag, thinking about it brings me back to my early days of working at PurseBlog and living in New York. The Cahier editorial was one of the first significant features I helped style and write myself. I lived with two roommates then, and the bag cost more than double my rent!

I loved that bag but didn’t dare become too attached—there was no way I was buying one! The best I could do was ooo and ahh over every influencer on my feed who wore one, and there were many! The Cahier had a major moment in the late 2010s.

A Look Back

The Cahier was one of the first bags I lusted hard for, to the point of an unhealthy obsession. Even though I knew it would never be within budget for me, I had to look at it (nearly every day!). While combing through our photo archives, I recently found a photo from NYFW of an attendee wearing a white and black Prada Cahier Bag.

Instantly, I got that familiar feeling in my stomach, transporting me back to another time—a world in which I hadn’t yet discovered my first gray hair; staying out until 3am didn’t leave me debilitated for days, and COVID-19 had yet to exist. What a time.

With its unique rectangular shape and distinct clasp, the Prada Cahier felt elegant yet chic and edgy all at once. I wasn’t that girl then, but I wanted to be. Taking its name from the French meaning for notebook, its silhouette mimics the shape of an antique diary, which, as a journal girlie, was another major point that tugged on my heartstrings.

Prada will always be a major point in my handbag story, and looking back at the Cahier makes me nostalgic for a different time—in life and in fashion. I haven’t thought about this bag in quite a long time, but now that I have, I’ve become entirely re-obsessed with the idea of owning now what I couldn’t then.

Shop the Prada Cahier Bag via Rebag.