Tote bag women: linen, jute canvas and printed nylon

Open-top totes with two handles, made up in linen, jute canvas, plain canvas or printed nylon. A few carry a pale panel with wording set across the front. The rest are printed edge to edge with stars, geometric shapes or patchwork, most of them finished with fringing round the sides. Only a few close with a full-width zip. The rest simply draw together or stay open at the top, which is rather the point of a tote.

Linen, jute or a canvas tote bag: what changes in the hand

Four cloths run through this selection, and they do not behave alike. Weight, stiffness and the way a print sits on the surface all follow from the material, so it is the sensible place to start.

Materials found across this selection
MaterialHow it behavesEveryday upkeep
LinenStands up on its own, creases along the folds, pale enough to carry printed wording.Sponge the mark, dry flat.
Jute canvasCoarser grain and stiffer sides. The most rustic of the four.Brush dry, spot-clean rather than soak.
Plain canvasMatt and even, used as the ground for lettering rather than pattern.Warm water and mild soap.
Printed nylonThe lightest. Pattern across the whole surface, fringing round the edge.Wipe with a damp sponge.

Linen and jute canvas both keep their shape when the bag is empty, which is why the lettered models are cut from them. Printed nylon with fringed edges goes the other way: light, loud, and unbothered by a wet counter.

Open, buttoned or zipped

An entirely open tote fills faster but shows everything inside. Several models simply draw together with a button and loop, which holds the sides in without sealing them. Others take a full-width zip, and those are the only ones that genuinely shut. On the linen models a front pocket saves rummaging for a phone at the till. Handles vary more than you would expect: black on the pale cloths, yellow cord, navy or turquoise on the printed nylons.

Tote bag or shopper: two words, one bag

They describe the same object, an open bag with two handles and no frame. Shopper is the shop-floor word and sounds practical; tote came in with the printed cotton bag and reads younger. Both sit on this page, and nothing about the way you use them changes with the label.

Three sizes, and what each one swallows

Depth barely moves, staying between 17 and 18 cm throughout, so the real choice is footprint. At 42 × 32 × 17 cm the bag takes a document, a pouch and the day's bits. The same width with five more centimetres of height, 42 × 37 × 17 cm, lets a jumper or a flask stand upright instead of lying flat. The largest jumps to 54 × 35 × 18 cm, twelve centimetres of extra width, which is the difference between carrying your things and carrying the shopping too.

When a different shape suits better

To see how the tote sits among the rest, look at the page that brings together every bag shape we stock.

If you would rather have something that keeps its outline once set down, with a tighter opening, look instead at the structured styles carried in the hand.

And when summer swaps cloth for natural fibre, there is the woven version made for the beach.