Bag for life or just this season
Young London women are surely the most environmentally conscious in the world. What else can I conclude on hearing that 20,000 fashionistas began queuing, from 3am, along London's main thoroughfares for what is essentially a beige canvas shopping bag of the kind your grandmother might use? The bags, priced at 5 (US$10), went on sale at 450 Sainsbury's supermarket stores at 8am - all were sold out by 9am.
Designed by Anya Hindmarsh, they are intended to be "bags for life", an environmentally-friendly replacement for disposable shoppers, which apparently didn't stop many of them being carried out of the store inside one of the supermarket's plastic bags. Oops!
So, what are we to make of this new trend for environmentally aware fashion design Cheap Handbags? I suspect that the many women who camped out on the city's rainy cold streets all night were not eschewing the comfort of their beds for the greater good of the global climate. Otherwise, surely they would just re-use a shopper they already own, or purchase another cheap cotton bag.
This is clearly another example of consumerism at its most desperate - I predict similar queues will be seen when Kate Moss's newly designed range goes on sale at TopShop later this month. The modern compulsion to buy, buy, buy - in excess of our finances, need and sense - is very wasteful in terms of energy expenditure and unwanted items.
But there is the argument that if people are going to buy anyway, then why not give them something "good" to buy. This bag is the latest brainchild of We Are What We Do, a great organisation (that I have had some involvement with in the past), which aims to change the world in teeny, achievable steps. The whole "act local, think global" movement, which engages with individuals on a level with activities that they can personally manage - for example, turning off unnecessary lights - is commendable and very important in my opinion.
Now that a reusable canvas grocery bag has become the must-have item, the next step is for using plastic shoppers to become a social faux pas on a par with keeping a car that belches out sooty fumes. Likewise for the fashion designers' trend for organic cotton clothing over items grown using pesticides.
Do the women who have bought the new bag know or even care about the environmental principle behind its design? Will some people use it instead of a disposable plastic shopper Ray Ban Sunglass Brand Wholesale? I have no idea. In a way, I don't even think it matters. In turning the bag into the latest desirable item, they have inadvertently raised the profile of the issue behind it. Small steps, people.
What do you think? Have you already bagged a bag?
Gaia Vince, environment editor
Comments:
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Hello Gaia - yes I have several bags, but as I live in Canada, not the fine one you discuss in your article. It's a comical thing to contemplate and I agree with you - small steps. My bags are old ratty looking things that have been around the block more than once. They've been available here at various health stores for years. Now the big box stores are jumping on the band wagon and selling them too Buy Cheap Handbag - Handbag Heaven My latest cost me 99 cents. I've been known to reuse plastic bags supplied by grocery stores. In fact when I need bin liners I don't even bring my reusable bags with me. I haven't bought bin liners for years - haven't needed to. By the way, I lived in England for a couple of years as a child and I seem to remember being highly jealous of my mom's string bag. Wasn't that the way we always did things?
By april on April 27, 2007 12:17 AM
I've acquired a number of free tote bags which I use for my shopping. The only one close to being fashionable is my sxsw tote, but I don't mind looking like a dork. weren't they among the shwag-to-have during the dot-com boom? Same could be said for water bottles. Bags are made with fair trade too. (offer other smart items to help cut down on consumption like safe water reusable bottles ) Lot's of good information at site too (its how i found this article). They are also member 1% for Planet donating 1% of sales to environmental causes. They support and promote the triple bottom line.
By Anonymous on October 31, 2007 1:57 PM
For a long while I have been using the canvas totes sold by the local grocery store, but then I found the "Dangly Brown Sack" online and appreciated the humour. It gets quite a few laughs from the checkout boys, to be sure. I do not know how to use the habbo gold ; my friend tells me how to use. I will thank for my friends bringing me in this world. I am not regret to buy habbo coins . We all love game, if you want to play it, please buy habbo gold and join us. Please do not hesitate to have cheap habbo credits . It is funny.
By Anonymous on January 10, 2009 4:09 AM
Welcome to our game world, my friend asks me to buy some flyff penya . I do not know how to use the flyff money ; my friend tells me how to use. I will thank for my friends bringing me in this world. I am not regret to buy flyff gold . We all love game, if you want to play it, please buy flyff penya and join us. Please do not hesitate to have cheap penya . It is funny.
By Anonymous on January 10, 2009 4:47 AM
To buy flyff penya , it is not the aim of the flyff. It is the game which brings a lot of happiness to me. We buy the flyff money together. The beautiful story, we can not be forgotten, buy flyff penya . You will not regret to have flyff gold . So I will continue to have cheap penya , it is a beautiful fairy tale, it looks like my life.
