Is This $5000 Valentino Cat Bag the New Pigeon Bag?

Growing up, my abuela would call me Paloma, which is the Spanish word for pigeon. They are her favorite animals, the small feathered creatures she would spend her lonely days feeding when she first immigrated to New York City. But until she told me that detail, I just assumed she maybe hated me. I was nervous. I’d wonder, What is it about me that reminded her of the "rats of the sky"? So when Jonathan Anderson made pigeons chic with his viral JW Anderson pigeon clutch back in 2022, I felt smug. My abuela and I always knew there was something special about the misunderstood bird, and it seemed like high fashion was finally catching up.

Carrie Bradshaw went on to wear the pigeon bag on And Just Like That, which truly cemented it as a Fashion—capital F—item. In no time it was sold out and seen sitting on the laps of influencers and fashion editors front row at fashion week. It was the first time in a while that an It bag wasn’t so serious. It wasn’t meant to be a signifier of wealth and status but instead of something far more uncommon in the fashion landscape: a sense of humor.

I knew a successor to the pigeon bag would come some day, and that day is now, some three years later. And it comes not in the form of another underappreciated feathered friend but in a far less contentiously cute form, that of a slightly freaky, wide-eyed, potentially haunted little cat.

Valentino’s Chat de Maison Clutch Bag looks like a vintage cat cartoon come to life. The cat has spooky blue eyes with a thick slab of eyeliner and glamorous curled lashes that make me blush. She has little blue ears and feet with her two front paws held together in the kind of gesture that gives you the sense that she is up to something, most likely something that is no good. She can be held in the palm of your hand or worn with a small gold strap to toss her over your shoulder, where she’ll dangle at hip height horizontally, as if lying down for a cat nap.

The Valentino cat bag has already stolen the hearts of multiple celebrities on the red carpet, where she has been worn a handful of times. The first instance that I am aware of is Colman Domingo carrying the bag back in October of last year to the Academy Museum Gala. He told red carpet interviewers that his suit would have just been a suit if not for the cat, which added some much-needed whimsy. Domingo noted that he enjoyed wearing something people had lots of questions about. He has a point. When you’re just a man in a suit, there’s not much to ponder about. But when you’re a man in a suit holding an adorable cat clutch in one hand? Then there’s a conversation to be had.

Charlotte Lawrence went on to wear the bag to this year’s Oscars, along with a tiered pink Valentino gown covered in gems. Then Clairo popped up wearing it at The Met Gala. On Instagram she posted some photos with the cat, and then one of the cat bag sitting at her table, its paws clapping together alongside her plate in a scheming and menacing manner. The cat bag always looks like it’s up to no good, like it snuck onto the red carpet sans invitation.

Right now, it feels like everyone can’t stop talking about Labubus, a viral fluffy keychain with a devilish smile everyone is wearing attached to their luxury bags. It’s part of the overall movement of wearing designer duds adorned with cute charms in an effort to show personal style and to make the fancy and stuffy seem… less fancy and stuffy.

But ultimately, it reads as exactly that. When you charm up your Louis Vuitton Speedy or your Miu Miu Wander bag, you look like you’re trying to make something that was very expensive appear not as intimidating. It feels obvious, maybe even a little try-hard. Not to say I don’t love a good cute key charm—I have several! But to wear a pigeon or a cat as a bag feels like actually taking a risk. It’s not easy to understand and definitely a little eccentric. Of course, the Valentino cat bag will also unfortunately set you back $5000, which, to be fair, is far less than an actual cat will cost you over its lifetime.

But you’re not just paying for the cutest bag with a wicked glimmer in its eyes. You’re paying for the hundreds of conversations it’ll start and the thousands of double takes it will elicit. You’re paying for the vibe it brings to the function. There are few singular items that can say something so definitive about one’s sense of style, but this cat bag would do just that. And maybe that's exactly what makes it just as powerful, if not more so than the pigeon bag.

If you wear it, no one has to guess what you’re like. It does all the talking for you. Actually, it purrs.