Life

My All-American Bargain Handbag, Assessed

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky

By Phoebe Maltz Bovy February 28, 2017

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Recently I was in lower Manhattan, when one glamorous-looking woman made a remark to the similarly style-conscious woman she was with about how everybody has that bag. They were looking at me! At my handbag.

By “handbag” I mean this $39 camouflage tote bag. As the “backordered” note suggests, everyone does indeed have this bag. What I’m trying to figure out is, why? How did a tote bag that doesn’t even advertise the fact that you buy expensive but flattering yoga pants, become A Thing?

I can speak to the bag’s practical qualities, which are impressive. This one bag has carried, albeit not all at once:

-My computer

-My groceries

-My not-teacup-sized dog

And in all cases save the canine example, it zips! Which is useful, because when you go around with a $39 purse, you’re definitely the person pickpockets find most interesting.

Yes, the Board of Health would probably give my bag (or at least the bagels contained therein) a Grade Pending rating, but the interior material at least looks as if it could be spray-cleaned, like a countertop. While I do own regular-adult-woman handbags as well, this has become the default.

All of this is, I realize, an explanation for why someone who genuinely DGAF where fashion is concerned would go the zip-tote route. But why is it chic? (It is. Trust.)

One interpretation is political: A utilitarian, unisex, compartment-free, vaguely but non-specifically militaristic purse-replacement speaks to a moment when women are fed up with trying to please.

That, or it feels, in fashion parlance, ‘fresh’ to have a non-splurge handbag. While the traditional leather purse is still out there, and still a necessity for many situations, something is happening with bags similar to what did with shoes a few years back, when suddenly beige platform stilettos went out, to be replaced by (still-ubiquitous) white sneakers. If a garment or accessory used to be special, saved-up-for, now it’s cheap. Conversely, if an item used to be an afterthought, that’ll now be The Thing, because fashion is like that. Thus, I suppose, why business-wear slacks and leggings have swapped prices.

Maybe it’s egalitarian, ‘bubble’-transcending feminism. Or maybe a bag is just a bag.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a former editor of the Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic and The Atlantic. Her book, “The Perils of ‘Privilege,’” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University, and has read a lot of 19th century French Jewish newspapers for a 21st century American.