The L.L. Bean Tote Has Always Had Major Fashion Editor Appeal
Former Vogue editors from the '00s and beyond weigh in on the fab "sack"...
Last week, T Magazine included the L.L. Bean Boat and Tote as one of the top 25 shoes and bags that changed fashion over the past 100 years. “Though modestly priced (it sold for $4.75 in 1965 and costs less than $50 today), it became associated with wealthy East Coast summer destinations like Nantucket and the Hamptons,” wrote Jameson Montgomery. Earlier in February, Chloë Sevigny posted her L.L. Boat and Tote embroidered with the name of her favorite vintage store, “Open 24 Hours” to Instagram stories. In December, the L.L. Bean Boat and Tote got a fashion facelift when Tibi strapped a men’s belt around the bag, suckered out any contrast, slightly narrowed the silhouette, and christened it the “Re-Imagined Boat and Tote,” upping the charge from $50 to $475. This was once a modest canvas piece. The affordable weekender bag. The schlepper you stamped initials or name onto. Initially dubbed an “ice carrier” in 1944, the piece put a preppy pep in your step for a breezy price.
The L.L. Bean Boat and Tote fits into the Birkenstock phenomenon, which became fashion fodder in the early 2010s and continues today, cropping up in trend articles and designer collaborations. With both the Birkenstock and the Boat and Tote, people can buy the inexpensive pieces touted by editors, encouraging shoppers to feel in the know without the need to blow the equivalent of a month’s rent on an It item. Both are inexpensive products with a simple silhouette that begs to be riffed on by designers and labels, making the products ripe for collaboration and, yes, major moolah. As for the Boat and Tote, there is buyer control with the customization factor: People themselves can embroider their initials, names, or cheeky phrases onto the Boat and Tote, transforming the canvas piece into, well, their own canvas.
But make no mistake: The original L.L. Bean Boat and Tote was always an oddly democratic staple within the fashion world, especially among editors, specifically those at Vogue. (Vogue Runway's Production and Editorial Associate Irene Kim checked this in a street-style piece about the Boat and Tote at fashion month last March.) As for in-the-flesh sightings, I remember the Tote tote-d by former Vogue market editor Anny Choi. Her first experience with the bag was in 2013 when she was tasked with dropping “the book” at the home of Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. “I distinctly remember riding with her driver