Telfar Shopping Bag Medium

A paper bag, measured and rebuilt

The Telfar Shopping Bag started as a copy of something nearly everyone in New York has carried: a department-store shopping bag. Telfar Clemens took his proportions from a famous New York department store's shopping bag, measuring a real one so his version would match it.

The bag first appeared with the label's Fall/Winter 2014 collection. It was made in vegan leather, embossed with the interlocking TC logo, and fitted with both short handles and long cross-body straps. Telfar sold it in small, medium and large and, over the years, in nearly any color.

The Museum of Modern Art, which catalogs the bag as launched in Telfar's first collection, describes it as having quickly attained cult status. That status came slowly in business terms: the label had existed for nearly a decade before the bag turned it into a household name.

Telfar Clemens and his circle

Telfar Clemens was born on January 21, 1985, in LeFrak City, Queens, to Liberian parents. He spent part of his childhood in Liberia, and the family returned to the United States during the Second Liberian Civil War, settling in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He studied accounting at Pace University, graduating in 2008, and started his label while still a student and working as a DJ.

The label was always unisex and built around a community of friends and collaborators. Babak Radboy joined as creative director in 2013, a year before the bag's debut. Clemens has said unity means a lot to him and that his core group comes from all different backgrounds.

Recognition arrived in stages. Clemens won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2017, with a $400,000 prize, and was named the CFDA's Accessories Designer of the Year in 2020 and 2021. In 2021 he was named a Global Leader of Change at The Fashion Awards.

How a $200 bag became a status symbol

By 2019 the bag was being called the Bushwick Birkin, a joke that captured its double identity: a coveted status object that cost a few hundred dollars rather than tens of thousands. One account says the bag lifted the brand's sales from $100,000 a year to $1.6 million a year; another says revenue grew 25-fold in three years.

It was carried by Solange, Bella Hadid, Dua Lipa, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Oprah Winfrey, among others. Colored drops sold out quickly, and collaborations kept the bag in the news: a red version made with a New York boutique in 2019, an orange one with an online retailer in early 2020, and a chrome medium made with Mission Chinese Food in July 2020 that came with chili oil and seaweed chips, with 20 percent of profits going to the Okra Project.

Demand outran supply so often that Telfar created the Bag Security Program. In August 2020 the brand opened a one-day preorder window: anyone who ordered within the 24 hours was guaranteed a bag, however long it took to make. The program returned in 2021; one account dates the second window to March 2021, and another says there were two more events that year.

How to identify a Medium Shopping Bag

The medium is the size most people mean when they talk about the Telfar bag. The maker says it fits a laptop plus a daily survival kit. A published size guide gives the current medium as 15 inches wide, 10 3/4 inches high and 5 inches deep, with a 21-inch strap drop. The small is 6 5/8 by 4 3/4 by 3 1/8 inches, and the large is 19 1/4 by 14 1/4 by 8 inches.

The bag has a double strap system, two top handles and cross-body straps, an embossed logo, a main compartment with a magnetic snap and an inside zipper pocket. It is made of faux leather with a twill lining and ships in a drawstring dust bag printed with the logo. A resale guide notes YKK zippers with pulls shaped like soda-can tabs.

Age matters when comparing bags. Telfar redesigned the dimensions in 2018, so a medium made before then is smaller than a current one.

A bag in a museum, priced by demand

The Museum of Modern Art owns a 2016 Shopping Bag in faux leather, catalogued as object 177.2024 and acquired with Committee on Architecture and Design funds. Its example measures 19 3/4 by 19 1/4 by 8 inches. The museum's text calls the bag a cult object and quotes the label's slogan: it is not for you, it is for everyone.

Telfar has kept experimenting with how the bag is sold. In March 2023 it introduced dynamic pricing: items go on sale at wholesale cost and rise as demand grows, capped at the brand's suggested retail price. If an item sells out before reaching that price, it stays at the lower price for good. In September 2023 the brand launched TelfarTV, a 24-hour live-streaming site.

Published retail prices have ranged from about $128 to $270 by size in 2020 to $150 to $257 by a later account, with limited editions higher. In October 2026 the maker's site listed the black medium at $202.

The numbers

Dimensions (medium)

15 in W x 10 3/4 in H x 5 in D; 21 in strap drop

Material

Faux (vegan) leather exterior, twill lining

Hardware

Magnetic snap closure, inside zipper pocket; YKK zippers with soda-tab pulls

Straps

Two top handles plus cross-body straps

Sizes

Small, medium and large; dimensions changed in 2018

Production quantity

Not published

Timeline

1. Jan 21, 1985

   Telfar Clemens is born in LeFrak City, Queens, to Liberian parents.

2. 2005

   Clemens founds the Telfar label while studying at Pace University.

3. 2008

   Clemens graduates from Pace University with a degree in accounting.

4. 2013

   Babak Radboy joins Telfar as creative director.

5. 2014

   The Shopping Bag debuts with the Fall/Winter 2014 collection.

6. 2016

   The year of the Shopping Bag later acquired by the Museum of Modern Art; a tricolor edition is released for Fall/Winter 2016.

7. 2017

   Clemens wins the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and its $400,000 prize.

8. 2018

   Telfar redesigns the bag's dimensions; later mediums are larger.

9. Sep 2019

   The nickname "Bushwick Birkin" takes hold, according to one account.

10. Jul 2020

    A chrome medium made with Mission Chinese Food benefits the Okra Project.

11. Aug 2020

    The first Bag Security Program opens a 24-hour preorder window.

12. 2020

    Clemens is named CFDA Accessories Designer of the Year; he wins again in 2021.

13. 2021

    The Bag Security Program returns, and Telfar dresses Liberia's team for the Tokyo Olympics.

14. Mar 2023

    Telfar introduces dynamic pricing.

15. Sep 2023

    Telfar launches TelfarTV, a 24-hour live-streaming site.

The world in 2014

• Mar 2, 2014

  12 Years a Slave wins Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

• Jan 21, 2020

  The first U.S. case of COVID-19 is confirmed.

• Mar 13, 2020

  The United States declares a national emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Mar 27, 2020

  The CARES Act stimulus package is signed into law.

• 2021

  The delayed Tokyo Olympics are held; Liberia's team wears uniforms by Telfar.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Telfar Shopping Bag Medium is number 100 of 100 in the handbags entries of the FLOAT 100. 19 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (92 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Telfar Clemens measured an actual department-store shopping bag to set the proportions of his own.
• Clemens studied accounting, not fashion, at Pace University.
• The Bag Security Program let anyone who ordered within 24 hours get a bag, ending the race against sellouts for that window.
• A 2020 chrome medium came packed with chili oil and seaweed chips.
• Under Telfar's dynamic pricing, an item that sells out before reaching full retail stays at its lower price permanently.
• Telfar designed the uniforms for Liberia's Olympic team at the Tokyo Games.