Handled with Care: A Tote Bag in Leather
Presumably, the humble tote bag can’t believe its luck. Because, for years, it had been unceremoniously scrumpled and tossed into bigger, more superior bags as an afterthought. It had been mistreated, under-appreciated, and considered only barely better than a brown paper grocery bag. And then, one glorious day, the sun began to shine on simple, two-handled totes. Whether used to trumpet your insider knowledge of a British bookstore, carried to declare your loyalty to a backwater brewpub, or slung over your shoulder to prove why, yes, you do subscribe to The New Yorker, the tote bag of today has ascended to new levels of status symbol-dom.
And now, Prada has elevated it even further. Available in brown leather, it has two terrifically stitched parallel handles for your arm to slip smoothly through, a chasmic open top for ease of access, and vast, seemingly bottomless depths in which to stash your phone, your wallet, your gym shoes, or your latest can’t-put-down paperback.
And, aside from its supple leather construction (the brand trusts artisans in the Tuscan communes of Scandicci, Valvigna, and other Italian factories to create all of its leather goods), there’s another feature that stands this bag apart from other, simpler totes. For, around its top hem, the fashion house’s ever-inspired designers have included the distinctive touch of the leather belts. Threaded through small, understated loops stitched to the bag’s main body, they are secured with silvered oblong buckles similar to those found on Prada’s actual belts for men, and are stamped small with the label’s inimitable logo.
The Prada name can also be found on the front of the bag, embossed cleanly into the leather with gold foiling. Throw in a shoulder strap and even a small secondary buckle to bind the two reinforced handles together, and you’ve got perhaps the pinnacle of the humble tote bag’s well-earned, perfectly practical renaissance.
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