I’m on a roll with The Row here with a review of a Row item every month so far. This month I’m going to talk about The Row Kitan coat I got from the Neiman Marcus sale at the end of 2023.

I accidentally bought a fake The Row Park Tote from my go-to eBay seller (who didn’t do me wrong for five straight bag purchases). I actually bought this one for a friend so I was quite bummed when I got it. I knew as soon as I felt it that this was a fake. The leather was rubbery and the handle was too stiff. But since that’s not much to go on, here’s the various ways I knew this was a fake (and it was a really good fake at that too).

For those who’ve been following me on Insta, you know that I’m completely obsessed by The Row’s N/S Park Tote. I first encountered it secondhand in a shop in Ginza, and even though it was quite worn I couldn’t pass it up (I went back the next day for it). Ever since then I’ve been on a hunt for secondhand Park Totes (I got them all from Japan) and have gotten two mediums (one in the pebbled leather and one in smooth), one small, and one large, along with a brand new pebbled medium one from Saks in cognac.

I’ve always thought of the brand The Row by the Olsen twins as a line of ridiculously priced basics. And even though I like basics (and even the Olsen twins’ fashion sense) I never thought about buying anything from them until I read this article by The Cut (which I found thanks to Cathy from Feather Factor). When I read the part about an ultra wealthy women buying 30 cashmere crewnecks (spending about $30k on them) and the author calling their sweaters “perfect,” I had to find out what all the hype was about. And well, now that I’ve tried this one I have to say I get it.