Origins of Bags — 2-Part Series

• Part 1: From Humanity’s First Bags to the Modern Revolution
• Part 2: The Hidden Stories Behind Their Names (current)

Origins of Bags Part 2: The Hidden Stories Behind Their Names

Say “fanny pack” to a British person and you will be met with an awkward silence. In the United States, “fanny” is a cheerful slang word for buttocks — but in the United Kingdom, the same word refers to a far more sensitive part of the anatomy.^[1] That is why the British call the same bag a “bum bag.” Ironically, “bum” is itself British slang for buttocks.

Bag names are far more than simple classification labels. They carry traces of slavery, memories of battlefields, a child described by Shakespeare, and the sweat of bicycle couriers racing through city streets. Trace any name to its roots, and the bag stops being a mere container for belongings — it becomes a window into its era.

The Tote Bag: From Verb to Fashion Item

The English word “tote” first appears in American Southern English in the late seventeenth century. The meaning is simple: to carry by arm or shoulder.^[2]

The origin of the word was long debated. For some time, the leading theory held that it came from West African languages. The Kikongo language of the Congo basin has “tota” (to pick up), Kimbundu has “tuta” (to carry, to load), and Swahili has “tuta” with the same meaning.^[2] The argument was that enslaved Africans brought to the American South through the transatlantic slave trade had let their languages seep into local English.

However, the Oxford English Dictionary officially rejected this etymology in 1989.^[2] The scholarly consensus is that the origin remains unclear. What does not change is the fact that the word emerged in the context of agricultural labor in the American South. Whatever its etymology, the name “tote bag” carries the history of those who bore burdens.

The modern tote bag as we know it traces its origins to a canvas bag released by the American outdoor brand L.L.Bean in 1944.^[3] Its original purpose had nothing to do with fashion. It was designed to carry large blocks of ice from the icehouse. The simple structure — thick cotton canvas with handles — was a practical solution for transporting ice safely before refrigerators became commonplace. L.L.Bean called it the “Boat and Tote.”^[3]

The bag’s transformation into a fashion item came decades later. In the 1960s and 70s, the environmental movement stirred hostility toward disposable plastic bags, and the reusable canvas tote became a symbol of ecological consciousness. Today the tote bag has all but forgotten its etymology and original purpose, settling instead into its role as an urban essential and one of the most popular items in museum gift shops.

The Messenger Bag: Born on New York Streets

The history of the messenger bag begins with the bicycle. In the 1950s, field workers such as telephone line installers and repairers in American cities needed a bag they could wear while working — one that left both hands free.^[4] A canvas bag worn diagonally from one shoulder to the opposite hip was the answer. It had to open and close quickly.

This practical tool became an urban cultural icon in the 1970s and 80s, thanks to bicycle couriers in New York and San Francisco.^[4] These riders, delivering documents, film reels, and legal papers through gridlocked city centers, wore messenger bags as a kind of uniform. Carrying heavy loads for hours without interfering with pedaling generated real, accumulated knowledge about how a bag should be constructed and how durable it needed to be.

In the late 1980s, former couriers began founding dedicated messenger bag brands, and the quality of the bags improved substantially.^[4] Skateboarders, students, and photographers adopted them next, and the courier’s work tool gradually became a symbol of street fashion. The name “messenger” came directly from the bag’s function — yet today almost no one uses one to deliver messages.

The Clutch: A Bag Born from a Verb

The clutch takes its name from a verb. “To clutch” means to grip tightly, to grasp.^[5] The bag’s defining characteristic — held in the hand or tucked under the arm, without handles or straps — is embedded directly in its name.

Small hand-carried bags of this type have a far older history. Among the earliest surviving clutch-style objects is a brass-decorated bag from the Mosul region of Iraq, estimated to be over seven hundred years old.^[5] Crafted with the intricate metalwork of Islamic artisans, it was both a practical object and a repository for valuables.

In Europe, small hand purses were carried by aristocratic men and women from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries onward — hung from the waist or held in the hand. However, the term “clutch bag” as a settled fashion designation did not emerge until the late 1940s to around 1950.^[5]

The clutch’s elevation to a fashion item came in the mid-twentieth century. Designers like Judith Leiber created miniature clutches encrusted with crystals and metalwork, and the bag became essential evening wear. A bag with no handle and no strap — one that must be held — is simultaneously the most impractical and the most elegant form the bag takes. That inconvenience was itself a signal of formality. Carrying a clutch declared: “I am in a place where I have no need to carry things.”

The Satchel: From Latin, Through Shakespeare, to Fashion

The satchel’s name has traveled a long road. Follow the etymology and it leads to the Latin “saccellus,” meaning a small money pouch.^[6] This passed through Old French “sacel” and into Middle English as “sachel,” appearing in written English records from the mid-fourteenth century.^[6]

Shakespeare brought the satchel into literary history in his 1599 play As You Like It, where he describes the seven ages of man. Portraying the second stage of life — childhood and schoolgoing — he writes of “the whining schoolboy, with his satchel / And shining morning face, creeping like snail / Unwillingly to school.”^[7] It is evidence that by the seventeenth century, the satchel was already established as an indispensable item for schoolchildren in England.

In Britain, the satchel maintained its association with students for centuries. The rectangular leather bag with a flap closure was well suited to textbooks and notebooks. But from the mid-twentieth century onward, the backpack took over as the default student bag, and the satchel began to feel dated.

The reversal came in the late 2000s. In 2008, Julie Deane of Britain began making leather satchels at her kitchen table to raise money for her children’s school fees. Cambridge Satchel Company, started with six hundred pounds of capital, caught the attention of fashion bloggers and grew rapidly, at its peak generating annual revenues of twenty million pounds.^[8] It took four hundred years for the schoolchild’s bag described by Shakespeare to be reborn as a luxury fashion item.

The Fanny Pack: A Belt Pouch from 5,300 Years Ago

Five thousand three hundred years ago, a man fell in the snow of the Alps. Discovered in 1991 near the Italian-Austrian border, this frozen mummy — known as Ötzi — was wearing a small leather pouch at his waist when he died.^[9] Inside were flint tools, a drill bit, and a bone awl. Fixed at the waist and designed to leave both hands free, this pouch is the earliest surviving physical evidence of a belt pouch.

The modern fanny pack emerged in earnest in the 1980s. Small zippered pouches made of nylon or polyester spread quickly among skiers, hikers, and tourists.^[10] The 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and pop stars like New Kids on the Block wearing fanny packs made the bag a symbol of its era.^[10]

By the 2000s, however, the fanny pack had rapidly acquired the stigma of the “uncool tourist bag.” As fashion consciousness grew, it came to be seen as something worn by people indifferent to style. Then in the mid-2010s, luxury brands like Gucci and Prada put waist pouches on the runway under the new name “belt bag.”^[11] With the name came a new image. The icon of uncoolness reversed course to become a high-fashion item. Ötzi’s hip pouch had returned to the fashion week runway, 5,300 years later.

Shoulder Bags and Crossbody Bags: The Rules Chanel Rewrote

Shoulder-worn bags had always existed. For centuries, soldiers had carried ammunition pouches, military knapsacks, and map cases suspended from shoulder straps. But these belonged to a world entirely apart from women’s fashion.

Coco Chanel broke down that boundary. In February 1955, she introduced a quilted leather bag fitted with a metal chain shoulder strap. The bag took its name from its launch date and became known as the “2.55.”^[12] The chain strap design is said to have been inspired by the key rings worn at the waists of convent nuns and the knapsack straps of First World War soldiers.^[12]

What made this bag revolutionary is simple. Until then, women’s handbags were held in the hand or draped over the arm. A shoulder bag that freed both hands fundamentally changed the grammar of women’s bags. Freedom of the hands meant freedom of movement. Chanel’s chain bag was a social declaration before it was a functional innovation.

The crossbody bag is a variation of the shoulder bag. The diagonal strap running from one shoulder to the opposite hip had long been used in military bags. Its adoption in women’s fashion came after the mid-twentieth century. More secure and more practical than a shoulder bag, it spread quickly, especially among travelers and city dwellers.

The Formula by Which Function Becomes Fashion

Tote bag, messenger bag, clutch, satchel, fanny pack, shoulder bag — look back at the names of these bags and a single pattern becomes visible. Not one of them was designed for fashion from the start.

A canvas sack for carrying ice became a symbol of the environmental movement. A bicycle courier’s work tool became an icon of street fashion. A student’s leather book bag was rediscovered as a luxury item. A nylon pouch worn at the waist of tourists appeared on the runways of luxury brands. The strap on a soldier’s knapsack, passing through Chanel’s hands, became one of the most important forms in modern women’s fashion.

These transformations all require time. When the functional association is too strong, fashion cannot take hold. But when function fades and only form remains — and when someone rediscovers that form in a new context — the bag finds a second life. The names survive while the meanings change. The tote no longer carries ice; the messenger no longer delivers messages; the fanny pack no longer goes anywhere near the fanny.

Those names remain as traces of where the bags came from.

Previous: Part 1: From Humanity’s First Bags to the Modern Revolution