Better than you: This bag recently convinced Dick Cheney to buy a PriusIf you follow fashion, you’ll understand the power of the phrase “I am not a plastic bag.” Yesterday, in less than an hour, New Yorkers snapped up 2000 canvas totes labeled with those words at a Manhattan Whole Foods. The bags, which cost around $15, have been snapped up all over Britian and are nearly causing riots in the States. Why? Because fashionistas currently like being eco-friendly, but they’ll always love being cutting edge, and Anya Hindmarch’s creation is the status symbol of the summer.

Being an organ of many opinions, Jewcy is divided about whether or not this is a positive development. Editor Joey Kurtzman has said before that he likes the idea of tying good deeds to status. Since people put so much time and money into showing off, he reasons, why not harness that energy and attach it to a worthy cause? After all, when a soulless, shriveled trendwhore totes vegetables in her “I am not a plastic bag” bag simply to make her BFFs feel like lesser human beings because their bags aren’t quite so de trop, she’s still conserving resources. One less petroleum product will wind up in one less landfill even if the bag’s owner’s intentions are utterly rotten and black of heart.

Then again, unlike philanthropy, bag ownership isn’t immediately a good deed. Rumor has it that some department stores in England were actually bagging the Hindmarch bags in plastic, which is both hilarious and terrifying in its implications about the depths of human stupidity. Jewcy contributer Rebecca Diliberto has made her own critique at Café Press, and she’s donating all proceeds to charity. Anya Hindmarch seems like a cool, well-intentioned lady; I think Diliberto’s “I am not a douchebag” would amuse her more than anything else. After all, it can carry vegetables home from the supermarket too.