From a £149 John Lewis version to LA’s gorpcore take, the ‘good intention’ bag is intended to look good but hold more
It’s not a multi-thousand pound handbag from Hermès that best captures the new era of It bags, but a £149 tote from John Lewis.
Launched this season, it’s deeper (45cm) and taller (33cm) than your average handbag, and comes loaded with good intentions. It’s able to hold your packed lunch, flask and book, as well – at a push – as your gym kit. The high street retailer is calling it the Intentional tote bag.
According to Carrie Cooper, John Lewis’s senior footwear and accessories designer, it’s “an all-day bag – you can fit your spare shoes, snacks and water bottle in but, rather than a more practical and functional tote, this feels more ‘intentional’ and a decision rather than a basic shopper”. It is, she says, “oversized but not structured”.
These “good intention” bags, often deeper and less wide than totes of yore, focus on what they can hold rather than the space they take up. They are everywhere. Marks & Spencer has a suede equivalent and one that comes with ruching and a drawstring. Jigsaw calls its iteration a “shopper”. Me+Em, the brand favoured by the working women of the Labour party, has a 36.5cm-long “soft day bag”.
