Man bags aren’t a new thing. They’ve been everywhere for a while—remember Joey from Friends? There’s an entire episode of that show from 1999 dedicated to the goofball’s newfound love for a simple black purse. (”At first, I thought it just looked good, but it's practical too,” he said. “Check it out! It's got compartments for all your stuff! Your wallet! Your keys! Your address book!”) Now, the man bag is no longer a novelty: Also known as a “murse,” it’s worn under the arms and across the chest, in forms ranging from satchels to messenger bags. Proponents have included a buff David Beckham, a cool A$AP Rocky, and a hip Pharrell.
The latest incarnation of the man bag? The “mote”—a men’s tote bag. Just a few weeks ago, Balenciaga’s dadcore-themed Spring 2018 men’s show included slews of tote bags in sleek leather, and a can’t-miss-it lime green raffia piece. Louis Vuitton showed a monogrammed version, while J.W.Anderson had large knit totes. The piece also made cameos on the street during men’s fashion week: Many showgoers wore the tote in cloth form, clutching the formless carryalls in their hairy hands or slinging them over strong shoulders.
But despite their ubiquity on the street, tote bags seem to carry some baggage, especially those dime-a-dozen, cheaply made cloth ones, which function as a lazy substitute for a briefcase or a computer bag. On a man, in my opinion, it’s a cringeworthy accessory that suggests he’s as formless and bland as the bag itself. And even men seem to understand this. A male friend who works in tech has long been conflicted about his tote-carrying ways, noting that it made him “feel like a ninny, and has a frequency with which it gets tangled on my arm.” Photographer Daniel Arnold also shared some choice words. “Hate and wear. It makes me look like a babysitter, which I can say because I have been a major babysitter,” he emailed. ”Part of it is that, at least in my life, tote bags are always freebies. You never pick out a tote bag that you like. They’re always advertisements for whoever gave them to you, which adds to the shame of wearing them.”
Women seem to agree. In a recent Facebook poll I conducted, one friend felt forced to defend her tote-carrying boyfriend’s manliness: “He carries snacks! Like apple, dried fruit, almonds, duh!” she wrote, adding: “My boyfriend is very masculine, I swear!” Vogue.com fashion writer Brooke Bobb sees the genre as “a pseudo-intellectual thing,” explaining that she frequently spots men with bookstore totes. (True, the item does remind me of a some dorky guy bent over like a right angle carrying textbooks back from his master’s-in-philosophy class.)
Still, men who tote are everywhere, and in light of the item’s recent runway resurgence, I did some soul-searching to come to terms with them. Part of my aversion may stem from the idea that men should be low-maintenance, and that a bag—any bag—indicates otherwise. After all, what on earth could they be carrying? They have pockets for their necessities—there should only be two, right?—keys and a wallet. And they can stuff those into their pockets without a care about bulking up their silhouette. But then I remember that this is 2017, a time when busy people need iPads, lunches, books, charging cords, and yes, snacks. (All those Balenciaga dads have to carry diapers and bottles in something.) And not every guy wants to be weighed down by all the pockets, hardware, and general bulk of a backpack or briefcase.
As for the mote’s manliness factor, even that may be changing: Just look to the 6’4", 220-pound basketball star Dwyane Wade, who, alongside his purse-carrying wife Gabrielle Union, recently was spotted carrying Thom Browne’s “Hector” tote bag, an actual leather bag in the shape of a dog. What was he carrying in there? Who knows. But his barrel-chested message for men who tote seems to be to simply tote with confidence—and perhaps invest in a leather version while you’re at it.
Let’s Talk About Men and Their Tote Bags
