Cast of Vices Corner Store Leather Totes, $240 via ShopBop
Everyone is familiar with the plastic bags that the Cast of Vices Corner Store Leather Totes mimic, but as I’ve come to learn over my first six months in Manhattan, New Yorkers have have an even deeper connection to these little plastic totes. New York’s healthy population of bodegas, delis and mom-and-pop takeout joints keeps a steady stream of these bags flowing into use in the city, and where suburbanites might find themselves using a Target or Kroger bag to line their bathroom waste baskets or carry their lunches to work, in New York, the odds are that it’ll be one of these generic designs instead. (Or a Duane Reade bag, but I try to pretend Duane Reade doesn’t exist.)
I’m willing to bet that people living in other urban areas have a similar experience, which makes these leather versions (down to the openings in the handles so that they can be racked for quick dispensing) all the more familiar and clever. The embossed black leather give the remade design a decided punk aesthetic, which means that I would absolutely carry one of these bags, even if they are a novelty. I’m just not sure exactly how much I’d pay for one, but if the leather’s as thick and soft as it looks in these photos, then the price isn’t necessarily unfair. Buy the “thank you” or “smiley face” versions through ShopBop for $240 each.
