Totes For Everyone

The evolution of the tote bag over recent years is one born out of both practicality and style. Well, you’d probably argue that all bags ought to be practical and somewhat stylish. However, the tote bag has something extra, an underlying value, a subliminal meaning or even a relatively obvious promotion of something you support. This could be your favourite charity, your friend’s new revolutionary start-up biz (even it’s an awful idea) or simply a print that proudly displays the part of London you’re from. As well as being trendy, tote bags are often incredibly cheap compared to most other alternatives. Their value for money combined with their practicality and trendiness makes tote bags even more of force to be reckoned with.

You might be thinking that tote bags are too girly or feminine but the origin of the tote bag is quite the polar opposite. They were originally designed by LL Bean in 1944 when the first Bean’s Ice Carrier was made. It was a bulky bag made of reinforced cotton for transporting substantial blocks of ice. The task of carrying one of these weighty tote bags is manly no matter which way you look at it. So in Spring/Summer 16, whether your simply transporting your groceries, or a hefty set of speakers to lend a friend, or you’ve actually been giving the task of bringing the ice for the drinks bucket at barbeque, be sure to have a tote bag at your beck and call!

Tote bags are also in keeping with the trend of textured menswear at the SS16 shows. They are often made from heavy cotton, tweed, furnishing fabrics, denim, bits of leather and various other retro fabrics which keeps them bang on trend through these textured times. At FARA, we have brought together the best of all these fabrics to create the foundations for our new limited edition tote bags – TOTES FOR EVERYONE. Each bag is TOTALLY unique and hand made from fabrics donated to FARA, by women in prison in London at the Fashion Training and Manufacture Unit, a social enterprise set up by London College of Fashion, UAL and the Ministry of Justice. This is an initiative which is aimed at providing skills and meaningful employment for serving and recently released offenders.

Totes for Everyone bags are available now from FARA’s Online Shop: http://ebay.eu/26f51a3

The sale of these totally unique tote bags will help fund FARA’s outreach scheme to help disadvantaged young women develop parenting and life skills, part of FARA’s internationally accredited FOYER training programme.