I love Tote Bags.
There, I said it. Back in high school, I was the only student carrying a tote bag. The tote was a brilliant blue nylon with polyester straps, a large single opening and a body-wide zip pocket on the back. I used that until it frayed too much to be useful.
Now that I’m a close senior citizen, I’m back to using totes! Totes are basically one large opened bag, sometimes with outside pockets, sometimes not. They will have shoulder straps and sometimes a cross body strap. They are usually 13-19 inches wide, 9-15 inches tall and 3-5 inches deep. I have reviewed many of these on Amazon, Reviews here https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AFAN3JH3B2OYV4VFWSVMHO53VJ7Q?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=ya_d_l_profile
Starting from back, Orange Marc by Marc Jacobs, Saddle Piel Leather Laptop Tote, Apple Green Piel Leather Laptop Tote, Dark Red Piel Leather Basic Marketing Tote, Aubergine Calvin Klein Reversible Tote, Honey Piel Leather Basic Double Strap Tote, Baby Blue Piel Leather All Around Tote and Dark Plum Joe’s 55 Carry All Tote.
Remember from the first article, Guys Start New Bag Habits, there are basic seasonal colors: basically, Spring is baby blues, pastels, pale colors; Summer is time for bright and brilliant colors; Fall is for muted colors and Winter is for gemstone and rich colors. Here, I have the baby blue and apple green for spring; red and yellow for summer; orange and aubergine/plum for fall and the saddles/dark chocolate for winter. Previous article I wrote about using dark blues and navy for Winter, falling in the gemstone for Winter.
These bags are big enough to carry my usual items, such as basic clutch for wallet-keys-phones-carmex, medical bag, medications bag, charging cords, dopp kit for umbrella-sunglasses-savings cards wallet, 2N1 laptop, ereader, reusable water bottle and other clutches and bags I may need, depending on how long I’ll be gone from my apartment for the day. Those of us that are older have to think of what we’ll need throughout the day, so a decent sized bag is needed. Others may need to think of work items, headphones or earbuds with cases, workout clothes-towels-soap-deodorant and so on. As you can see, tote bags can be upscale or down home, for whatever your needs are.
Shopping for tote bags could not be easier. I bought all these online, some for pennies on the dollar. Sites I went to include Amazon, Ebay, Etsy and Poshmark. I have discussed these in previous Men’s Fashion articles here on brickoneil.com/blog. When shopping on Amazon, use their ‘Amazon Warehouse’ section and wish lists to keep track of bags or items you like. What I did was create a ‘bags, clothes and shoes’ wish list as well as my favorite leather retailer, Piel Leather wish list. Next, I kept track of prices by checking periodically for lower prices, bargains, sales and price drops with their warehouse. All four sites let you create wish lists so you can keep track and all have bargains or sales throughout the year.
Spread your wings a little and start carrying bold, bright and beautiful bags!
Until next article,
Brick
Brick ONeil 