The tote bag is an identity

A tote bag is a full identity presentation.

It says where you shop and who you are, sitting right there on your shoulder.

I have a neighbor I see constantly with a Louis Vuitton bag and a Trader Joe's canvas tote, always both, every time. Neither one is cheap anymore either.

Look at what Roots charges for a canvas tote now: their canvas totes run from $28 up to $48 CAD, checked September 2026. That's an accessory price.

Canvas totes already win because they cost less than a purse and people buy them often: an impulse price, bought again and again. Stack the details above onto that, and it's a category on its own.

Clothes swing on a pendulum. I wrote about the oversized era coming to an end. Bags, to me, look like they're on the way up.