When a Pacific Tote Company tote bag arrived in my building’s mailroom last month as part of a promotional package for Sofia Coppola’s namesake rosé, I was immediately struck by its sturdiness. Thick shoulder straps easily win battles with bulky winter coats, and the bag’s shape is so rigid that it’s almost basketlike. The brand was founded by Coppola’s brother Roman, and the siblings obviously share an even-more-famous father. Something of a nepo bag, the Pacific Tote has had more advantages in life than your average piece of canvas, but after using one to carry groceries, I’ll admit that it works hard and possesses true natural talent.
I’d recognized Pacific Tote immediately because the brand has become rather popular among entertainment-industry-adjacent insiders. Sewn in California from leftover sailing canvas, its bags look like classic L.L. Bean boat totes, except brightly colored. And the people carrying them are more likely to spend their mornings taking breakfast meetings than taking the catamaran across the bay. If you work in film and fly between L.A. and New York every other week, you carry your laptop in this bag. It’s basically the bicoastal Baggu.
As with many seemingly organic microtrends, Pacific Tote’s niche popularity can be traced back to a coastal city–based creative agency. The brand is an offshoot of Roman Coppola’s the Directors Bureau, which connects filmmakers like Wes Anderson with brands like Prada and Stella Artois. Sofia, who has made ads for Chanel and Dior and is currently promoting her latest feature, Priscilla, is also on the roster.
Her influence is key. More than a decade old but mostly operating under the radar until recently, Pacific Tote Company has definitely received a sales boost from the Priscilla press cycle. As she recently told the Strategist, Sofia Coppola (who is known to have immaculate taste in everything from crisp collared shirts to gel pens) carried a multicolor Pacific Tote on the Priscilla set and owns versions in bright pink and yellow. Keeping things in the family, this month Pacific Tote Company even launched merch bags for Phoenix, the French indie act fronted by Sofia Coppola’s husband, Thomas Mars.
It can be difficult for people not on the GQ Man of the Year party invite list to actually obtain their desired Pacific Tote Company bag, and that sense of scarcity (combined with a boldly high price point) obviously adds to the appeal. New colorways disappear quickly, and the brand’s Instagram comments section is full of laypeople begging for restocks while celebrities and their friends receive them for free. Kirsten Dunst, Alexa Chung, and Martha Stewart all own Pacific Tote Company totes.
Most of the time, though, they’re carried by people who are slightly behind the scenes. How Long Gone’s co-hosts, Jason Stewart and Chris Black (also the Strategist’s style columnist), are fans, and the duo even worked with Pacific Tote to produce their podcast’s official merch (now sold-out). Other elite shoulders to strain under a Pacific Tote Company bag include those of the New Yorker’s Naomi Fry, stylist Karolyn Pho (who also happens to be Stewart’s wife), and Cap Beauty’s founder, Kerrilynn Pamer.
The original industry insider to carry one of these bags and influence the names above to do the same is probably film producer Chris Chang, who works closely with Roman Coppola and told me he owns “not ten, but more than five” Pacific Totes. “It’s kind of fun because I’ve always sort of been a tote-bag guy for as long as I’ve been alternative or whatever,” he says. “But it feels like a real bag — a New Yorker tote, it’s just a flimsy little canvas thing.”
And yes, he says, there’s a certain pleasure knowing that you’re carrying your stuff in the same tote bag that the guy who directed The Godfather (or Peggy Sue Got Married, my Francis flick of choice) uses. “Because I can’t imagine Roman hasn’t given his dad one, you know?”
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