Balenciaga Would Like To Sell You $3,290 Grocery Bags

Balenciaga is at it again: The luxury brand is currently asking $3,290 for a bag designed to look like a reusable plastic tote. The craziest part? The bag might actually be worth it.

Grocery bags have been cropping up on Balenciaga's catwalks since 2017. The latest release? The Antwerp tote, which features photos of produce printed on the sides. With nylon handles and a plasticky, woven texture, the bags look like something you'd buy at the supermarket for 99 cents. But these totes are made of calfskin, not plastic. Peep inside, and you'll find a full lining and sleek hardware. Still, other luxury brands sell bags for similar prices — with less luxe materials. Dior's Book Totes have a similar supermarket silhouette, but in cotton, not leather. While the bag's various patterns may have a broader appeal than Balenciaga's vegetable print, a pretty pattern doesn't justify the $3,500 price tag. Louis Vuitton's wildly popular Neverfull sells for $2,200. The material? Coated canvas.

But pricy totes aren't exclusive to high-end brands. In early 2025, resellers lept to list Trader Joe's limited-edition mini totes for $1000 after the $2.99 bags sold out in stores. The resellers may have been overoptimistic — but some of the totes fetched $100 or more. Taste is subjective, and people are free to spend their money however they want. But are Balenciaga's bags cheeky and playful, or exploitative and absurd? You'll have to decide for yourself.

Balenciaga started making high-end versions of low-end objects after creative director Demna Gvasalia took control of the brand in 2015. By the time the brand released its first grocery bags, pricey purses designed to look like trash bags and luxe versions of IKEA's blue plastic totes had already hit shelves. Online, fashion fans frequently described the brand as a social experiment.

Balenciaga's first high-priced grocery bags came as a three-part capsule collection. Two mimicked reusable plastic totes, and a third was designed to look like disposable plastic. (You probably have a similar bag stuffed full of a few dozen other bags in your pantry right now.) Like the Antwerp tote, the bags were made from calfskin, with prices ranging from $950 to $1,150. But, for the most part, fashion fans were unenthused. "Spend one grand on it just to let your mom throw it away on accident," wrote one appalled Instagram user, with another commenting, "This is just pathetic."

But the grocery bags proved popular enough that Balenciaga returned to the design. In 2022, the brand released a bag based on Tesco's old plastic totes. While Tesco retired the bag design in the '80s, it still sparked nostalgia among U.K. customers — enough that the Balenciaga version sold out.

In October 2023, Balenciaga launched the Antwerp tote as part of its Summer '24 collection — and reviews were mixed. Reddit users derided the bag as being ugly and pointed out that the logo imitated that of Spar, a European supermarket brand. Ironically, one user explained that "Spar" is German for "save money." Some commenters accused the brand of appropriating poverty. "It's incredibly classist and mocks the 'uncultured poor masses,'" one Redditor wrote. "This is exactly like the bags poorer women in Paris wore to do their shopping ... in my opinion, Balenciaga is racist and classist AF selling these," another explained.

But Demna Gvasalia claimed that he designed the bags to skewer luxury — not the other way around. "I don't care much about luxury. I don't want to give people a proposition to look like they're rich or successful ... I do bottom up," he told Vogue. "Fashion should be fun." A few Redditors agreed. "Isn't fashion also about provoking? I think Balenciaga did a good job," read one comment. "I love those bags," someone else wrote. "They're so whimsical and fun."

But Balenciaga doesn't just spoof budget brands. In 2023, the fashion house released a collaboration with Erewhon, the celebrity-favorite supermarket with sky-high prices. The Erewhon branded tote, designed to look like a brown paper grocery bag, retails for $ 2,290.

Balenciaga accessories certainly aren't limited to grocery totes. The brand sells wallets and clutches designed to look like potato chip bags, too. The clutches come in different flavors — cheese and onion, salt and vinegar, and spicy chili — and retail for $1,890.

Fashion for foodies is nothing new. But lately, food-themed accessories have turned from a quirky novelty to a full-fledged trend. In 2024, an X user joked that a lumpy, bumpy heirloom tomato was "so Loewe," referencing the luxury brand's whimsical signature. The post went viral — and proved to be prophetic. A few days later, the brand's creative director revealed that he'd been working on a design for a tomato clutch.

Luxury fashion house Moschino, known for kitschy clothes, sells a clutch made to look like fringy pasta. Indie brand Rommy de Bommy sells purses made to look like cakes, croissants, and fast food favorites. The prices may rival luxury brands, but the hyperrealistic bags take weeks to make since designer Rommy Kuperus crafts every detail by hand. Kate Spade's Snack Time crossbody isn't as convincing as Balenciaga's chic $1,890 chip bag, but the $378 price tag feels like a steal. Increasingly, food fashion is also literally made from food: While faux leather is traditionally made from plastic, designer brands are turning food scraps into vegan-friendly alternatives.

If you're wondering why food is the latest thing in fashion, you're not alone. Fashion writers have their theories, with some tracing the trend back to 2019, when the Met Gala celebrated all things camp. Kitschy outfits, like Katy Perry's hamburger dress, hit the red carpet en mass. Others claim that junk food is "forbidden fruit" for fashionistas, an ironic take on the industry's obsession with stick-thin figures and wellness routines.

A frequent theme among commentators is the idea that food-themed fashion is a reaction to tough times. Some say it's a recession indicator: as budgets get tighter, food feels more like a luxury. The trend may have stemmed from the pandemic, too, when Lirika Matoshi's strawberry dress went uber viral as people where drawn to the whimsy and comfort of the food-focused print.

For Demna Gvasalia, supermarket shopping bags seem to signal comfort. Spring 2024, which the designer described as "my most personal and my most favorite collection," was a sharp contrast to the shows he'd done for Balenciaga in earlier years. Previous shows explored dark and gritty themes inspired by his childhood as a refugee. Gvasalia told Vogue that Spring 2024 celebrated "the people who have meant most to me in my personal and professional life," stocking the runway with friends and family.

The moral? Whether your grocery tote costs 99 cents or $3,290, carry it with pride. It's a reminder of how food can bring us together — and it's right on trend.