Don't Skip Arm Day, Because the XXL Bag Is Coming for You

With evening sneakers, leggings as trousers, and being able to wear the same outfit from barre to bar, fashion and sport have gotten so tight they're the modern-day Baucis and Philemon (opens in new tab). That's all well and good (enough), except for one major problem: The getting up and moving part has been largely removed from the equation. Not so with this emerging trend from the Fall 2017 shows, which has you really pulling your own weight.

As seen on the runways, the XXL bag aligns with the industry's ongoing mission (opens in new tab) to either Supersize Me or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids all its accessories. This season, we've witnessed flatscreen-size camel carryalls at Céline, mammoth mesh laundry bags in the same prints as the Balenciaga sack dresses they were shown with, and quilted Mulberry tote bags that definitely wouldn't fit into the overhead bin even if you pushed everybody's jackets out (shouldn't have been there in the first place) and held up the whole boarding line trying to cram it in (unforgivable).

After a period of conservative, dainty-lady-proportioned handbags, it was only time for the pendulum to swing back. But more than that, it underscores what fashion, on both the red carpet (opens in new tab) and the runways, has been saying increasingly loudly—that a woman has the right to choose between a minaudière and carrying 7 million receipts and 12 useless lipsticks on her back, and that she can do both whenever she wants. It's freedom. It's a strength-training exercise if you don't rupture a disc doing it. And it's great fun to document how toned your delts have gotten.

Now that's a gain—in more ways than one.

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