Friday, July 20, 2007

I'M MY I'M NOT A PLASTIC BAG

I'm not a plastic bag

Is it genius or is it the epitome of commercial vapidity? Perhaps it's both.


On Wednesday, July 18 at 8 A.M. the four Whole Food locations in New York released 20,000 Anya Hindmarch I'm Not A Plastic Bag for $15 each. There was a three bag limit for each person. The bags sold out by 12:00 P.M.

The canvas bag was created to raise environmental awareness or as Hindmarch's website says, "
I’m Not A Plastic Bag came about because we wanted to use our influence in a positive way to make it fashionable not to use plastic bags. The bag is a stylish, practical reusable alternative that we hoped would raise awareness of the issue of wasted packaging and spark debate."

One only wonders why they made limited quantities if the intentions were solely altruistic.
By producing small quantities of the "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" shopping bag, Hindmarch overshadowed the cause she was seeking to champion. Regardless. Because this affordable fashion accessory is so must-have, the bags have been popping up on eBay in large quantities. Heck, I even bid for a bag on two separate occasions. It wasn't for me. It was for the fiancee. Swear.

But the prices kept going up and up and up and I promised myself I wouldn't spend more than $30 on this 2007 fashion mini-footnote. More like a toenote. The pinky toenote. And I have to admit that in mid-mouse-click, I felt pretty ridiculous bidding on this superficial punchline. How two days before, I had never heard of Anya Hindmarch but here I was pitting my measly bank account up against some Upper East Side woman armed with an itchy credit card. Or how my fiancee, who always refuses the double-bagging at the supermarket, doesn't need a fashion designer or the designer's bag to raise her environmental awareness. And the scarier thing to consider is, How did i get caught up in all of this? What does this say about me and my sheep-like tendency that I became enamored, albeit briefly, with something so...canvasy?

Or maybe I'm bitter because I didn't get one for my fiancee. That's also entirely possible.

4 Comments:

Blogger Thomas said...

i vote bitter.

2:56 PM  
Blogger Arye said...

This blog is a dictatorship, therefore, no voting.
; )

3:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hubby just brought me back a green "green" bag from supersol (yeah, in israel).
cost three shekel, provided you can get a friend or relation to bring one (or more) back
hs ema

12:54 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

it's ok, thanks for trying. I stole your SxSW canvas tote anyway.

3:25 PM  

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