Influencer Emily Mariko, of Emily Mariko’s Salmon Rice Bowl fame, has gone viral yet again — this time for advertising to her followers a tote bag that many are calling overpriced and insulting.
The Farmers Market Tote comes in two colors and retails for $120 via Mariko’s website, although both styles are currently sold out after going on sale on January 29th (many TikTokers have speculated that the totes didn’t really sell out, and this is an attempt to make them look more popular than they are and thus drive further demand).
The tote is described as extra large — its measurements are 26 x 14 inches — and it’s made from soft-brushed canvas and produced in California. Mariko and her tote have received a lot of criticism, owing largely to the fact that both in size and style, it looks incredibly similar to many other tote bags on the market, including ones sold by Trader Joe’s, L.L. Bean, IKEA and Amazon, for much less than the $120 Mariko is asking her fans to shell out.
Others have defended Mariko, arguing that critics aren’t part of her target audience and don’t “get it”; Mariko has been celebrated as a prime example of the “quiet luxury” trend, so anyone who wants to cosplay as also having “stealth wealth” might buy one of these bags in order to do so. FWIW: I believe that having made her name on TikTok, Mariko’s target audience is really just her TikTok followers, who she hopes will like her enough to buy the bag in order to have what is essentially a piece of Emily Mariko merchandise, rather than people genuinely interested in owning sustainable and ethically made shopping bags.
Truthfully, the most sustainable option is to use one of the dozens of tote bags you already have in your home — after all, it’s virtually impossible to exist in this day and age without accumulating them.
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