Avenues swarmed with honking yellow cabs, horns blaring like impatient metronomes. Foot-long designer showroom receipts whipped through the late-summer air like Wall Street ticker tape. In the distance, a steady staccato of cash registers dinged in harmony with stilettos click-clacking across marble floors. No, this wasn’t Broadway or the opening montage of a glossy noughties rom-com. It’s the overture to New York Fashion Week, when the city itself shapeshifts into the insiders’ stage set: flashbulbs flaring, a light mist of hairspray hanging in the air. At center stage—er, Fifth Avenue crosswalk, rather—is model-slash-style-muse Yada Villaret, her Akris Alice bag in tow, letting us slip into her pre-show prep routine. Yes, wardrobe overhauls and last-minute agency visits included.
We meet her where all the best fashion stories begin (and often end, depending on your credit limit): Saks Fifth Avenue, its grand marble entryway towering over the passersby weaving in and out of lavishly bouffanted uptown ladies and sharply tailored men in suits. Sporting a simple cotton button up Akris blouse, Villaret is set for a whirlwind day. Nestled on the third floor, the Akris boutique glimmers in soft lighting, racks of sculptural tailored sophistication, and a row of Alice bags quietly holding court.
“If I had to describe my style, it’d be minimal and timeless,” says Villaret, sliding between pieces on a metal rack, “I love how Akris plays with different textures and patterns. All of their cuts are classic and elegant.” She tucks a black leather jacket and tailored black slacks tucked in the crook of her arm. With her outfit secured, she flashes a gracious smile at the boutique staff, and she’s off to her agency, a new nightlife-friendly black leather Alice bag in hand alongside her daytime go-to of a nude Alice.
If the 2000s had their baguette bags and the 2010s had their oversized totes, the Alice is shaping up to be the 2020s’ defining carryall, carving out her own lane in the scroll-fueled trend cycle of Pinterest boards, TikTok #cores, and short-lived aesthetics. Clean lines, sculptural silhouette, and (perhaps most crucially for style obsessives alike) space for more than just lip gloss and a MetroCard, the Alice is perfectly calibrated for a generation obsessed with making the everyday look editorial.
“When you’re running around all day, you need to be able to fit your whole life in your bag,” Villaret laughs as she reveals six lip glosses stashed beside her sleek leather card holder, an overflowing keychain of kitschy charms, and her fashion week lifeline of a cell phone. Yet somehow, the Alice delivers: sized just right to stash show invites, AirPods to tune out the city sounds, and makeup for quick touchups, but streamlined enough to exude engineered laissez-faire outside Pier 59 Studios. Stitched with equal parts understated chic and insider cool, it’s the type of bag you’d imagine Carrie-era SJP hustling through Manhattan in the early aughts, coffee in one hand, life in the other, or today’s camera-ready equivalent: the one that lands in every spontaneously captured OOTD of an off-duty model sprinting between shoots and casting calls. Oh, the lives of the beautiful, booked, and busy.
Next stop: The INDUSTRY Model Mgmt, where Villaret pops by her agency to secure comp cards for upcoming go-sees. Born in Thailand, the starlet moved to New York at 18 with a portfolio and a suitcase of casting-ready noir staples, quickly climbing the ranks to become the face of campaigns spanning high fashion and commercial brands alike. She threads through the office between boxes of gifted showroom samples and doting agents.
“Visit us again soon!” a bright-eyed agent calls from her desk as Villaret snatches her Akris Alice off a desk and heads out the door. Her attendance is always in demand—whether on the catwalk or in the front row.
With a flick of the wrist and a knowing smirk, the raven-haired beauty effortlessly hails a cab like a native New Yorker. It’s a short jaunt downtown to the Moxy Lower East Side, where executive assistants and frontpage stylists mingle in the plush lobby, and iced lattes and last-minute fittings abound.
“I’m calling tonight’s look ‘city chic’,” says Yada, taking over a suite to get ready, sliding into her Akris black trousers and leather jacket, and arranging her Akris Alice bag just so. “I’m adding a bit of an eye to bring the look from day to night, but I tend to like the clothes to speak for themselves.” A few quick swipes of highlighter and one slick back ponytail later, she’s camera-ready.
And just like that, preshow panic finally exhales. The night winds down at late-night hotspot Sake No Hana, where the model and her coterie of fashion week veterans clink glasses to toast the week ahead. Alongside trendsetters and tastemakers alike, the most special guest at the table is Alice herself—sleek, structured, and perfectly primped for the whirlwind season set to kick off. After all, some bags don’t just carry things—they carry access. And Alice, like Villaret, always has a backstage pass.
Discover more from Akris here.
