Is Your Newest It-Bag Actually Made of… Paper?

When does one become too famous to shop at a grocery store? For the popular Kim Kardashian, running errands involves renting an entire outlet of Ralphs, as she once did in an Ellen DeGeneres episode, as witnessed by Amy Odell in her Substack, Back Row. In a more high-fashion twist, a heritage house dedicated its Fall 2024 collection to the seemingly unassuming task of grocery shopping in collaboration with LA-based purveyor of high-end organic produce, Erewhon, and Balenciaga.

Clearly, the key takeaway from the whole exercise is that the effortlessly chic supermarket bag is totally the next big thing in fashion – and obviously not the “green juice and yoga” of it all.

However, one can’t help but delight in the resurgence of paper carrier bags, despite residing in an era of disturbingly disintermediated impulse-buying and seamless card-swiping. The concept of purposeful purchasing has been replaced by sterile interfaces that make mindless stuff-getting spiritually less nourishing. Nevertheless, the physical act of purchasing has not diminished in any manner or form. If anything, we spend more than ever on things we don’t need.

This recent craze has prompted a resurgence in shopping bags, which have always held their cool within the cultural lexicon since way back in the 80s and continues to persist today.

While usually obtainable for free with any purchase, bags of this caliber have their own resale market corner on eBay, with prices for limited-edition pieces going into the double digits. Moreover, these bags are so popular that they have their own versions of counterfeits, while the presence of a bag and/or boxes can increase the value of secondhand products, especially to bargain-hunting Gen-Zers.

The Branded shopping bag epitomizes the purchase made with a purpose and symbolizes a firsthand connection with the luxury world. It’s efficient marketing, that’s all. With heritage houses trying to recapture some nostalgia, it remains to be seen whether buyers purchase the designers’ thousand-dollar versions of the paper tote or continue to fish out the originals years later. Regardless, the branded shopping tote gets the job done better than anything else designer houses might produce.