Custom vs. Ready-to-Ship Handbags: Which Is Right for You?
Shopping for a handmade handbag is a little different from grabbing a bag off the shelf at a department store. You aren’t limited to hundreds of identical bags made in the same few colors.
At Bagadoo & Co., you have another choice: find a finished, one-of-a-kind bag you love or have one made specifically for you.
Neither option is better for everyone. It really comes down to what matters most to you—your personal style, how you plan to use your bag, and whether you’d rather see the finished piece before buying or have a say in how it comes together.
Here’s how to decide.
Choose Ready to Ship When You Fall in Love With the Exact Bag
Sometimes you see a handbag and immediately know: that’s the one.
That’s the beauty of shopping ready-to-ship handmade bags. The bag in the photographs is the actual bag you’re purchasing. You can see its colors, pattern placement, hardware and overall personality before you order.
Because I make my bags individually rather than mass producing them, many ready-to-ship designs are one of a kind.
That makes ready-to-ship a great choice when:
- You love the exact color and material combination shown.
- You want to see the finished bag before deciding.
- You don’t want to make a lot of design choices.
- You’re shopping for a gift.
- You’d like your bag sooner than a made-to-order design.
Choose Custom When You Already Know What You Want
Maybe you’ve found the perfect bag style—but you’d love it in black instead of brown. Or silver hardware instead of gold. Maybe you’ve spotted a fabric in the Bagadoo fabric gallery that feels much more like you.
That’s where a custom handbag becomes fun.
You start with one of the available Bagadoo bag styles and choose the materials and colors you’d like me to use. We work from those choices to create a combination that’s yours.
You aren’t designing a handbag from scratch or trying to figure out how to construct one. That’s my job. You get to concentrate on the enjoyable part: choosing the look.
You can browse our Custom Orders Handbags for available styles, then visit the Bagadoo fabric gallery for ideas when choosing your colors and materials.
What Can You Customize?
The available choices vary somewhat by bag design, but customization can include things such as:
- Exterior colors and prints
- Coordinating solid materials
- Lining
- Hardware color
- Strap and handle colors
- Other coordinating details
I can also help you decide when you’re not sure what works together.
You don’t need to arrive with an entire bag planned in your head. You might simply tell me, “I love blues and I’d like silver hardware,” and we can start there.
That’s part of what makes ordering directly from the person actually making your bag different from selecting options from a factory drop-down menu.
Custom Doesn’t Have to Mean Bold
One misconception about custom bags is that customization has to mean bright colors, elaborate prints or something unusual.
Not at all.
A custom bag can be understated.
It might be a taupe bowler handbag with coordinating trim and gold hardware. It could be a black crossbody with silver hardware. Or it could be a colorful print paired with a completely unexpected accent color.
Custom simply means you get a say.
Think About How You’ll Actually Use Your Bag
Color matters, but function matters even more.
Before choosing either a custom or ready-to-ship bag, think about what you’re carrying every day.
Do you need something small for your phone, wallet and keys?
A crossbody bag might make the most sense.
Do you carry a little bit of everything?
Look at the larger handbags and tote bags.
Need your hands free or regularly carry more than a purse can comfortably hold?
Take a look at the backpacks.
This is also why I include measurements and interior photographs whenever possible. A beautiful bag isn’t very useful if it doesn’t hold what you need it to hold.
Ready to Ship Can Still Be One of a Kind
Choosing ready to ship doesn’t mean choosing mass produced.
This is an important distinction with handmade bags.
A ready-to-ship Bagadoo handbag is already completed, but it was still made individually. Different material combinations, prints and details mean you may be purchasing the only bag I made in that exact combination.
So if customization feels overwhelming—or you simply spot a finished bag that looks like it was made for you anyway—there’s absolutely no reason to complicate things.
Sometimes the right bag is already waiting.
And Custom Doesn’t Mean You Have to Know Everything
On the other hand, don’t avoid a custom bag because you’re worried you won’t know what to choose.
You don’t need to know fabric names, hardware sizes or bag-making terminology.
Tell me what you like.
Show me a color.
Pick a fabric.
Tell me you always wear black.
Tell me you want something colorful enough that you’ll never lose it in the room.
We can go from there.
That’s one of my favorite parts of making custom bags—taking someone’s ideas and turning them into something they can actually carry.
What About Crossbody Bags, Backpacks and Wallets?
Custom ordering isn’t limited to traditional handbags.
Depending on the design, you can also choose a made-to-order:
Crossbody Bag
Choose a compact everyday style and personalize the materials and colors.
Backpack
Choose a handmade backpack design and create a combination that suits your style.
Wallet
Create a coordinating wallet or choose colors that make it a statement piece on its own.
And if you’d rather skip the decisions, you can browse the corresponding ready-to-ship collections to see what’s already finished.
So, Which One Should You Choose?
Here’s the simplest way I can put it:
Choose ready to ship if you love the bag you see.
Choose custom if you love the bag but keep thinking, “I’d want mine in…”
Either way, you’re getting something very different from a bag pulled from a stack of identical products.
You’re choosing a bag that was individually made, one at a time.
And I think that’s part of what makes carrying handmade so much fun.