Tote Bag as Fashion Object

The cotton tote bag has gone from grocery-store alternative to personal billboard. That shift reveals how much a simple object can carry in terms of identity and belonging. Canvas totes from bookstores, museums, public radio stations, and independent coffee shops function as signals of cultural affiliation. The specific tote you carry says something about where you spend your time and what you value. Design is almost always the same: natural cotton, single or double handle, screen-printed graphic or text on one side. Variation is in the source. A Strand Bookstore tote communicates something different from a New Yorker tote, which communicates something different from a farmers market tote, even though they're functionally identical. I have 7 totes hanging on a hook by my door. I choose which one to carry based on where I'm going and who I'll see, meaning I treat a $15 cotton bag as a fashion accessory. Tote proliferation has created its own criticism: they aren't actually more sustainable than plastic bags unless you use each one at least 131 times. The Danish Ministry of Environment calculated that number for organic cotton. Whether the environmental argument holds or not, the tote has become a permanent fixture of urban fashion. Its role as a carrier of institutional identity interests me more than its role as a carrier of groceries.