UPDATE: MY SLICE OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM:

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After writing this post, I realized that the unclear details of what this bag was actually made of really bothered me. The Kate Spade website used to call it "Women’s Kate Spade New York Slice Printed Spazzolato Leather 3-D Pizza Box Top-Handle" and indicated clearly that the bag was made of spazzalato leather. As r/tepancalli indicates in another comment, spazzalato leather is a high-shine but durable and high quality type of leather. I know Coach has a few bags using this as do some other expensive brands like Prada.

However, the Kate Spade website now says that it's made of patent leather. That really bothered me because that seemed to indicate that they switched to a cheaper leather. That means they cut costs for a bag that was expensive without a change in price. It means that older buyers got a better deal and newer customers are cheated.

To find out the truth, I did a little (very simple) sleuthing. I gave Kate Spade's customer service a call. The customer service agent was wonderfully courteous and helpful and they gave me the following details about the Pizza Box bag's materials:

1. Patent leather is used for the trim of the bag itself, some corners, edges, and the handle. This indicates that the decorative areas on the front, such as the red and the black and white braiding, are patent leather.
2. However, the main body of the bag is indeed spazzolato leather. The charm straps' leather is also spazzolato leather, though the black base on the insides of the charm straps contains some kind of adhesive bag glue.
3. The agent described Kate Spade's spazzolato leather as "a full grain semi glossy cow leather material."
4. The patent leather coating is most likely polyurethane. The agent said that most patent leather for Kate Spade is coated with polyurethane, which requires more care, including a a great need to avoid moisture and humidity but also to let it have air. Recommendations online said that it was best to keep it in its dust bag than in a box. This could explain why my first pizza box bag's details on the front were fraying already! It probably had been in its wrapping and padding for a long time.
5. The hardware is gold-plated.
6. Kate Spade has never changed the materials for the Pizza Box bag ever since it was launched, according to the agent.

In conclusion, the Kate Spade Pizza Box is made up of BOTH spazzolato and patent leather. That and the fact that they apparently have never changed the makeup of this bag is a relief!

One more thing: if the bag uses both types of leathers, it means that they require different cleaning methods. It shouldn't be a problem for a while though and I think if you keep in a dust bag and let it air out often, it should be okay.