Fashion & Beauty

Quilt trip

Walk through Penn Station or Grand Central at rush hour on a summer Friday, and you’re likely to see sorority girls and business women alike hurrying through the corridors. Their trains might be heading off to different destinations, but they’ve got the same bag slung over their shoulders.

Quilted, floral, often faded, looking not unlike something your grandmother might love, these duffels might well be the most unlikely It bags ever to hold sway over stylish Manhattan women. For the past few decades, this patterned hold-all has been the ultimate weekend tote — and this season, its popularity shows no sign of letting up.

PHOTOS: QUILTED-BAG FANS

PHOTOS: EXTRA BAGGAGE

“They’re ageless classics that will never go out of style,” says Rudie, a celebrity stylist who goes by her first name.

She likes bags by both Vera Bradley and Pierre Deux, the two main manufacturers of the printed pouches. “They never break, there’s lots of cushion and they expand. “I’ve got a bright [Vera Bradley duffel] myself that I’ve had for at least a decade, and I use it when I go to the Berkshires,” says Rudie.

In 1967, Pierre Deux became the first company to start making the bags with a French country vibe. Today they range in price from $78 for the small duffel to $120 for the large. Vera Bradley, which has been around since 1982, creates overnight bags that cost from $55 to $80 in bright, contrasting colors. Vera Bradley has even spawned impostors — Victoria’s Secret carries a line of Bradley-wannabe bags with large monograms on the front.

But for these die-hard fans, spotted at Penn Station and Grand Central, nothing but the originals will do …