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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Morwenna Ferrier

How the ‘forever tote’ became the It bag du jour

A woman wearing a green coat and blue jeans checks her smartphone She holds a white tote bag
The average cotton tote needs to be used between 50 and 150 times to offset its production, says the UN environment programme. Photograph: Addictive Stock Creatives/Alamy

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.

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.

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