Bottega Veneta Padded Cassette Bag Honest Review

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OK so as someone who grew up in the 90s, I cannot NOT love this bag for the pure nostalgia it brings. I vividly remember those kitschy plastic bubble bags that were all the rage when I was in school (I had a yellow backpack version, if I remember right haha). They were so cute, but could hardly store anything. But the bubbles helped protect your stuff, I guess? Haha

VISUALLY, adorable. And I like how it maintains the brand’s weaving DNA, while taking advantage of the resurgence of 90s-00s comeback trends. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and is a practical size and style.

Now, let’s get to the most important part: THE MAKE. This bag is like USD2-3k or something, so it can’t just be all air and no substance, so to speak. Now the actual weaving is still done by hand, although not with as much skill or difficulty compared to their signature intrecciato weave–read my review on Bottega’s intrecciato woven bag here–but the sewing of the padded portions and the shoulder strap are done via machine. The padding isn’t as extreme as those 90’s bubblewrap bags, so you can still fit some things inside, but my concern would be that there is no lining (at least in the unit I inspected), so the gaps between the weave are actually pretty big in the corners. Bobby pins and eyeliner might just fall through every time the gap stretches wider as the bag shifts and moves. That being said, you can always have some kind of bag organizer inside? The stitches are machine sewn but have good consistency overall. Edge finish seems decent too. The bag possibly hasn’t been out long enough yet for me to say how much longevity it has, both style-wise and make-wise. All in all, it’s still the quality I would expect (more or less) at this price range and tier.

NOW–personally, I am only fond of the padded version with this oversized weave. The other iterations… are really kinda ugly for me. Plus, a lot less labor so a lot less value! I mean look at how sad these look:

These just look, quite literally, deflated. Add to that the wrinkly leather and weird puckering and these just look like factory rejects to me.

These ones with the smooth leather are perhaps marginally better, but there’s hardly any weaving effort, you know what I mean? I’m not sure what these are priced at but you should be paying just a fraction of the price compared to an intrecciato bag hahaha

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Bottega’s newer offerings. Check out this tall closet full of goodies haha. I spot a few of the iterations I also like: the one that looks like a croissant, and the one that looks like a picnic basket with the angled big weaves and gaps in between haha

Have you had the padded cassette for a while? Any problems?