CANVAS JUST BECAME A STATUS SYMBOL

Top image: Kallmeyer Cottage leather-trimmed canvas tote in red from Spring Summer 2026. Also available in black, beige, and cacao. For a smaller version have a look at the Driver bag in navy and Brunch bag in black canvas. Toteme makes this red beach bag and ARKET this red XL canvas bag.

Last week Charon spent a ridiculous amount of money (620 euros) on a canvas tote bag. This red Kallmeyer Cottage leather-trimmed canvas tote, also available in black, beige, and cacao, is definitely a deluxe version. It has an XL, oversized silhouette, leather handles, and a magnet closure (like that will justify the price tag). Since when are we willing to pay designer bag prices for a canvas bag? Something we once got for free with any purchase, purely to be a walking billboard, has turned into quiet luxury product and the primary carrier for our hybrid lives. We’re picking the seemingly brandless bag that swallows a laptop, pilates kit, and everything else in one go over the investment leather bag it used to be about.

The first canvas bags were built for ice, not fashion. In 1944, small home freezers meant people had to haul block ice home themselves, so L.L. Bean built a reinforced canvas sack for the job and called it Bean's Ice Carrier. In 1965, they rebranded it as the Boat and Tote, giving it a nautical redesign and its first colors, red and blue. (eBay is full of unique L.L. Bean vintage canvas editions, like this and this one.) After that Chanel saw the potential of canvas first and made it stick: in 2012, the Deauville bag arrived with chain handles, interlocking CCs, and "31 Rue Cambon" stamped across the front. Canvas stopped being a beach-bag fabric and started being a status one. The Boat and Tote, meanwhile, had its best season yet last summer, sales up 75 percent. It sure had something to do with the Tibi x L.L. Bean The Re-Imagined Boat and Tote bag (sold out, but pre-loved here), first previewed on Tibi's Spring 2024 runway.

KALLMEYER Molly linen-blend shirt, REYÈM Wide fit shorts, KALLMEYER Sora beaded belt and KALLMEYER Cottage canvas tote in beige

We can't go without our Kassl totes (some styles are on sale). They even tolerate a gentle machine wash. Others on our list are Valiese Easy bag (ARKET makes something in a similar feel), Toteme's beach tote, The Row Sisal Medium canvas tote bag, The Row Tori canvas bag, and The Row Idaho canvas tote bag (on sale). The Hermès vintage Fourre Tout tote (similar to The Row Sisal bag) has been on our radar since forever, just like Old Céline's 2018 canvas logo bag. A growing crop of bags is canvas purely for the texture, the matte weight of it, the way it reads next to leather trim, with none of the original logic about wear and tear attached. The fabric got promoted from workhorse to status symbol: see Balenciaga Rodeo medium canvas bag, The Row Agnes in canvas, The Row Astra in canvas, pre-loved The Row Margaux in canvas and leather and the vintage Hermes Herbag (more styles here) and we're not going to be the ones to argue.

The Row Agnes in leather and canvas

The art of buying on sale

If you’re not shopping during the sales, what are you doing? That might sound contradictory since we are promoting buying less, but hear us out. The sale is the moment where the two curves of price per wear and quality finally meet. This season, surprisingly little made the cut for Lara. But the few pieces that did are some of her favorite purchases in a long time.

Lara: Whenever I'm in Paris, I make a beeline for Le Bon Marché, my number one department store in the city (I only cheat on it for Phoebe Philo at Galeries Lafayette). It has one of the best selections, but it's the sales associates that keep me coming back. I always stop by The Row, where I'd been eyeing one particular pair of jeans for almost a year: the Claire jeans (on sale, also here and here) in the perfect faded black. Slouchy without being oversized. At well over €1,000, though, they stayed firmly on my wishlist. When The Row's private sale finally arrived, they were sold out everywhere within minutes. Luckily, Le Bon Marché had one last pair in my size sitting in London. They had them shipped to Paris, and a few days later they were mine. Proof that great sales associates are worth their weight in gold.

Turned out this is the summer of denim, because my second sale purchase was another pair of jeans: Khaite's Danielle stretch in grey (denim, leather, and knitwear are always the first filters I apply during Khaite sales). Less successful was introducing the jeans to mayonnaise on their very first outing. (A quick PSA: cold water and patience get grease out, rubbing detergent straight into the stain just sets it.) My favorite purchase, though, hasn't even arrived yet. I've been obsessed with Khaite's Clive boots (on sale here) ever since they launched, but full price was never an option. Then, out of nowhere, they appeared at Stoy in Copenhagen for 70% off. My size was gone until, after days of obsessively refreshing the page, a single 38.5 suddenly reappeared. I'm already planning to wear them with my grey Danielle jeans all autumn.

As much as I'd like to say I'm done shopping, there's always a wishlist lingering in another tab. Sophie Buhai's sculptural earrings somehow remain unsold. I like all things Leset and I want to try this new Nando fabric in this grey longsleeve. I like this Agolde denim bomber jacket and Khaite's Shelman leather jacket, both discounted enough that walking away still haunts me. I'm still debating these Kallmeyer pants. I love the color and the fit is great. Toteme's double-breasted brown blazer, The Row's corduroy Carlyle pants and corduroy shirt, and this Toteme or Lisa Yang cashmere knit round out the list, one of which I'll be living in by November.

LIDO Trentasei swimsuit (shop more swim here), AUTUMN SONATA Maria striped organic cotton-terry beach towel, THISTLES The Jack tobacco & slate and HERMÈS vintage Fourre Tout tote

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