How the ‘forever tote’ became the It bag du jour – and a greenwashing ruse
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From museums to wine bars, businesses are enticing consumers to carry logos on their arm. Demand is high, but the life cycle short. This year’s It bag isn’t made by any of the usual designers. And if this bag could talk, it wouldn’t say “calf leather” so much as “wash me at 40C”. What’s more, in an ideal world, you would never want to buy another again.
![[Morwenna Ferrier]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2017/10/09/Morwenna-Ferrier,-L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The “forever tote” is big business. Usually made from calico, an unbleached cotton designed to be reused, it’s similar to the cotton bags you have balled up at the bottom of a drawer, except it’s sturdy, with a reinforced base and handles, sometimes a pocket, often coloured (Yves Klein blue seems especially popular), and always conspicuously branded with logos. Demand is high.
![[A blue tote bag with Fitzcarraldo Editions in white.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0aed2b739e7c8b1d6013e11e0f21c871fb7ac6fc/243_0_1529_2499/master/1529.jpg?width=120&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Most of the totes at the highbrow, independent publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions are sold out, so it recently updated its standard “literary status symbol” blue tote bag into something more durable that could carry more books, says Fitzcarraldo’s spokesperson, Joel Burton.
![[a blue cotton patchwork tote with teh V&A logo]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/217f4825f76840ffc819fbab44900e4b7b5980d0/188_188_810_810/master/810.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
At the V&A, the biggest selling tote is made from upcycled textile waste from Ghana, which the museum describes as “art history, but fashion”. The V&A shop also has high hopes for its “reinforced Cartier tote”, a more affordable souvenir from the Cartier exhibition, which opens on 12 April.
![[A blue tote with produce sticking out]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0074d5fac74e1f1d86bc122cdaf0ce470e5a09cb/0_1295_3024_2147/master/3024.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Elsewhere, totes are selling like hot cakes at hip wine bars such as Joyau (“designed to definitely be more durable than an average tote,” says Joyau’s owner, Jack Lawrence) as well as at retailers like Lands’ End that has a tote with a bespoke monogram and colourful trims, which can carry more than 100kg of items. Naturally, prices reflect all the add-ons and these totes cost between £20 and £50.
![[white and blue tote bag ]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9748f7a1cfcd90c82e1e4b0d4665da3e55d2fa84/0_0_2000_2000/master/2000.jpg?width=120&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
