Anna Barger was walking down the streets of Paris this spring with the necessities of her day stuffed into an oversize bag when inspiration struck.
“All a girl really needs on a solo day in a city is a trusty BAB,” she says in a TikTok video.
From that point on, BAB, an acronym for “Big A** Bag”, has become a staple of Barger’s wardrobe and vocabulary.
The 26-year-old content creator is one of many women on social media who are lugging large totes and purses over their shoulders this summer, in what appears to be an emerging trend.
“It feels like girlhood because we’ve all carried a big bag with a bunch of stuff in it,” Barger said in an interview, later adding, “We’ve all had that moment.”
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In the television show Succession, the character Tom Wambsgans ridiculed the concept, calling a Burberry tote a “ludicrously capacious bag”.
But the proponents of the current trend rave about the functionality of a BAB, and how they fill it with all the items one may need on a lengthy outing, including – but not limited to – multiple shades of lip gloss, hand sanitiser, a miniature fan, a Kindle, a magazine, books, a computer, an iPad, a camera and Pilates socks.
“A girl with a BAB is a specific vibe,” Barger said. “She’s ready for the entire day.”
Macy Hyman, a 24-year-old content creator in Boston, said the accessory was particularly helpful for people living in cities, because it could eliminate the need to return home between activities.
“I will leave super early in the morning and pack up my huge bag with me, with everything I’ll possibly need, and just take it for the day,” Hyman said.
A BAB can come in all shapes and sizes, and has no required designer pedigree.
While Barger’s latest BAB is a Miu Miu, the first tote she showcased came from Anthropologie.
Others picked theirs up from flea markets and retail stores (several social media users said cross-body functionality, however, gave it bonus points).
The ultimate BAB, of course, was the original Birkin from Hermes, which recently sold at auction for US$10mil (approximately RM42.3mil).
That bag, a prototype for what has become among the most coveted accessories in fashion, was crafted for actress Jane Birkin so that she could hold all her essentials – diapers, cigarettes, notebooks and more – without spilling them.
Maria Ochoa, a 19-year-old fashion student in New York City, said she was not aware that BAB was an “actual” term that had been going around, because her penchant for carrying a large bag had already been a long-running joke among her and her friends.
Read more: Jane Birkin’s original Hermes bag sold for over RM42mil in an intense auction
But she said she had seen its popularity grow over the past year.
“I think it’s a really ‘it’ accessory right now,” Ochoa said.
She carries everything she could need in her BAB, she said, including beauty products, a film camera and crystals “for the good vibes”. – ©2025 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
