Tote Bags: The Real Cost

L.L.Bean's Boat and Tote began in 1944 as the Bean's Ice Carrier, a heavy canvas bag for hauling block ice from the car to the ice chest. It disappeared after a season, came back in 1965 in nautical red and blue, and has been the template for the everyday tote ever since. These are its descendants, the bags you do not worry about. Canvas and nylon are light, they wash, and they can take a wet towel or a farmers market haul without complaint.

ANINE BING has three here, the coated canvas Leo, the washed black canvas and the Leo in denim, all with that slightly collegiate lettering. Isabel Marant's Yenky comes in black and in a blue stripe, and the Polo Ralph Lauren canvas and leather tote is the preppy one with the pony. July's Large Everyday, the ALLSAINTS Asha in unbleached canvas and the Favorite Daughter Daily and Minnie are the natural, beachy end.

For the gym and the office, BEIS makes the Leather Trim Tote and the Commuter, both black and built for a commute, and Vee Collective's Essence is a sleek black carryall. Loeffler Randall's leopard nylon tote and the GANNI XXL shopper in a gradient leo print are the playful ones. Marc Jacobs' Medium Tote, here in a navy and white striped canvas, is the one everyone recognizes, and the Tory Burch Ella East-West in bright malachite is the color.

The rest of the grid is the other end of the shelf, for when you want leather or suede that still swallows everything: Métier's Cala 32 and Chameleon 30, Toteme's Roam, Miu Miu's leather tote, STAUD's Christos in dark suede, Bembien's Sera in suede and Hanna in woven leather, and Le Sundial's Salon Mini in a silk blend. Behno's Elizabeth in pebbled black and the St. Agni Woven Large in chocolate are the structured ones.

A tip: wash canvas totes cold and air dry them. Heat shrinks the cotton and warps the bottom.

What I would skip: a canvas tote with a heavy logo as your only work bag. Keep it for the weekend and the beach.

What decides a tote is still practical: capacity, closure and strap drop. Everything else is preference. In the Everyday Carry group of tote bags, Away's Riviera Straw Tote is the considered one and the Bare Necessities Cotton Canvas Tote is the one to start with. Elli Parr's Cleo is the structured leather one, the Herskind is the plain cotton one, and the Away Featherlight Daily Tote is the light one for travel days. Four canvas and cord totes join them, the Marc Jacobs Travel Tote and Medium Cargo Canvas Tote, the Alex Mill Perfect Weekday Tote and the Barbour Carrick Cord Tote, all easy to throw in the wash or wipe down. The St. Agni woven totes, the Woven Mini and the Bagu in chocolate, show what a tote looks like when the weave does all the work, and the Dragon Diffusion Santa Croce in bordo is the woven leather classic.

Unlined canvas is lighter but shows every mark, so treat it before first use. Leather darkens where your hand sits, which is not damage, it is the bag settling.

A test I use: put a laptop, a water bottle and a sweater inside and lift it by one strap. If the handles dig in, it will not get used.

What I would skip: a strap drop under about 22cm if you wear a coat most of the year. It will not clear the sleeve.

Match the bag to the day, not the outfit. One structured bag does more work than three soft ones, because it looks right with tailoring and with jeans. In this group, the DeMellier New York midi in textured leather is the one I would carry to an office, and Caraa's Studio Tote in black leather is the same idea with more room.

The St. Agni Woven Bateau in coffee is for people who want texture without color, and the Dragon Diffusion Nantucket in black is woven leather that can take a lot of weight.

The trick with a big tote is proportion. Wear it with something long and lean, a straight coat or a column skirt, and it looks intentional. With a lot of volume on top, it starts to look like luggage.

What I would skip: carrying a structured leather tote on the same shoulder every day. Swap sides and it will keep its shape for years.

Toteme, The Row, Balenciaga and Staud add roomier shapes to line up against each other, and the Bottega Veneta Small Pinacoteca brings in intrecciato. Vogue explains that Bottega started weaving leather in Vicenza in the late 1960s as a workaround, because its machines could not sew thick hides, so artisans wove thin leather for strength. A technical fix became the signature.

The Row's Marlo 12 and N/S Park, Toteme's Roam and belted suede tote, and the Saint Laurent Shopping E/W in the grid above are the minimalist end. The Balenciaga Le City is the opposite, all hardware and slouch. Bembien's Gabrielle and Emm Kuo's Pinet Mini are woven, and the Staud Port in suede is the soft one.

Check the strap drop on each, because it decides how the bag sits over a coat.

What I would skip: a soft, unstructured tote for carrying a laptop every day. The weight sits at the bottom and pulls the shape down, which is why the stiffer shapes here last longer.

Three labels I keep coming back to for totes, each with a very different point of view.

Veronica Beard was started in 2010 by two sisters-in-law, Veronica Miele Beard and Veronica Swanson Beard, around one piece, the dickey jacket, which they describe as a uniform for women. They only added handbags in 2024, and the bags have the same polish. The Lasso Belted Tote and the Large Dash Bag in black are workday bags, the Large Loop in tobacco is the slouchy one, and the Raffia Anchor Basket Tote in berry is pure summer.

Cult Gaia is Jasmin Larian's label, which she started in 2012 straight out of FIT making flower crowns. She told Allure that nobody bought her bamboo Ark bag for two years before it was suddenly everywhere. The Jayleen in natural raffia has the same sculptural instinct, the Solay XL is a soft black crescent, and the Nova and Rylie in luwak suede are the quiet ones.

DeMellier comes from Mireia Llusia-Lindh, a Barcelona-born former strategy consultant who relaunched her first bag label as DeMellier in 2017 and works from a studio in Hammersmith. The New York bag, launched in 2022, became one of its bestsellers. Here it comes in dark green leather, in brown suede and in a zebra print calf hair midi, plus the Hudson in taupe, in croc effect and in raffia.

What I would skip: buying all three at once. Pick the brand whose idea you like most, then live with it for a season.

The most famous leather tote in the world began with a straw basket. Jane Birkin carried wicker baskets as handbags for years, and on a flight from Paris to London hers spilled everywhere. Her seatmate was Jean-Louis Dumas, who ran Hermès, and the Birkin followed in 1984. Every soft leather work tote since owes something to that moment of a woman needing a bag that actually holds her life.

These are the totes I would carry to work. The Mansur Gavriel Soft M and Everyday Cabas are the purest shapes, from the brand Rachel Mansur and Floriana Gavriel launched in 2012 with just a bucket bag and a tote. Tory Burch's Romy comes in deep brown leather and in dark cocoa suede, and both are roomy enough for a laptop. Freja's Linnea in espresso and black and the Paloma are clean, structured and very easy.

For something softer, the Dragon Diffusion Castello and the St. Agni woven totes use woven leather, and the Veronica Beard Suede Dash, the Tory Burch Fleming in toffee suede and the MARGESHERWOOD soft tote in nubuck are the brushed ones. The Flattered Maris in burgundy and Favorite Daughter's Heirloom in cherry lacquer bring in color.

The Reformation Vittoria and Beatrice Bucket are the soft leather additions here, and the Jil Sander Tangle and the Proenza Schouler Large Ruched Tote are the sculptural ones when you want the tote to be the statement.

A tip: suede picks up rain marks, so brush it with a suede brush once a month and it will age well.

What I would skip: a white leather tote on a daily commute. The Alexander Wang Punch in vanilla is beautiful, but save it for the weekend.

Jane Birkin is the patron saint of this one too. She carried wicker baskets from the 1960s onward, with crochet minidresses and with jeans, and later in life she mostly used straw market bags. The basket is the most democratic bag there is: it holds everything, and it looks better the more battered it gets.

The raffia totes here run from structured to slouchy. Loeffler Randall's Cyrus has a ruffled rim and the Sol in blue and cream crochet stripes is the most cheerful bag on the page. Veronica Beard's Bamboo Vesper is a proper wicker basket, Ulla Johnson's Marina is a wide, scalloped shape trimmed in leather, and the ANINE BING Lili is the clean, minimal one. Madewell makes three very good ones, the Large Eyelet Raffia, the Handwoven Tote in faded olive and the woven leather Lexington, and Christian Louboutin's Venus Large Raffia Basket Tote is the dressed-up basket.

The A.L.C. Lucy and Ruby are open crochet, one sand colored and one meadow green, and the Casa Clara Kit is woven leather, darker and sturdier. Then two for fun: the SIMONMILLER calf hair Quad bag in zebra and the ALLSAINTS Izzy in cow print.

A tip: raffia hates water, so keep it away from a wet swimsuit and store it stuffed with paper so it holds its shape.

What I would skip: a raffia tote as your only bag for a city winter. It is a warm weather bag, and that is part of its charm.

When it comes to totes, one considered purchase beats three hedged ones. Pick the material first, leather for work, raffia for summer, canvas for everything else, then choose the shape that suits the way you carry. A tote you reach for every morning has done its job, whatever it is made of. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Luxury Tote Bags Edit and Designer Tote Bags.