WTF does Harry Styles keep in his tote bags?

Harry Styles loves a big bag. While he might be in the middle of the UK and European run of his Love On Tour shows, the 28-year-old found time ahead of his Dublin show to head to popular swimming spot Vico Baths for a dip. Pictured by fans walking down to the water, Harry was all smiles, his hair held in place by a gorgeous little clip. What wasn’t small, though, was the giant shopping bag he was carrying, like your nan pottering back from the beach with a sack of leftover picky bits from the local Tesco Express.

The contents of the bag are hard to decipher (looks like it could be a board game, or a crate of Guinness), but it’s always an odd image to see: a celebrity of that magnitude with something as innocuous as a plastic bag.

Of course, anyone who is familiar with the candid photos shared by Twitter account HSDaily or whose TikTok #ForYou Page is overrun with Harry Styles content (guilty), knows the man loves a bag.

TikTok Harries in their droves have been documenting his penchant for bags too. In fact, there are many pictures of Harry roaming around and, in almost every one of them, he seems to be laden with them, like a 19th century packhorse. “No fr. What tf is this man carrying in his bags,” the text on one video reads. “They look like they are going to explode.”

Meanwhile another one asked the question: “Why does he always have so much with him?” Indeed, these videos, made up of a number of different candid shots of Harry, all show the pop star ambling along with a bag so stuffed it looks like he’s either going on a long adventure or like the parent of a toddler whose packed three outfits for their child “just in case” they piss themselves.

But while there are pictures of Harry carrying all sorts of bags — large “gap year” backpacks, a Gucci suitcase patterned with the Mickey Mouse-laced monogram, chic handbags and a brown weekend barrel bag he’s had since his One Direction days — there is definitely one style that he favours: Harry Styles is a tote bag girlie.

Those who get it, get it. He, like the best of us, knows the importance of a good tote. What else are you going to use to carry that book you don’t plan on reading, your reusable water bottle, a notebook you won’t write in and numerous pens without lids every time you leave the house? He’s clocked on to the cardinal rule, too: the bigger the bag, the better.

His favourite totes are enormous and often stuffed to bursting point. He’s usually into the classic off-white variety, although more recently he’s taken to lugging around this one-of-a-kind Pleasing tote, a perk of being the creator of your own beauty brand, made of mesh with two different types of straps. (Harry, if you’re reading this, drop the link!)

The tote is clearly a big part of Harry’s aesthetic, so much so that the man is often pictured with more than one hanging from his shoulder. Still, it begs the question: what in the world is this man carrying around all the time that means he always looks like he’s just done his weekly shop?

After doing a bit of sleuthing (aka looking at pictures of Harry on Twitter and TikTok), it appears that it’s almost impossible to discern the answer to that question. There’s often a large box in the bags, which could hold all sorts of mysteries. Perhaps it’s filled with little trinkets that he likes to look at like Gollum? Maybe he’s carrying around the latest Pleasing drop? Or it could contain a little snack in case he gets hungry. In one picture it looks like he does carry around the tote bag staple — a book he probably won’t read on that particular excursion — but otherwise, the mind boggles.

What’s clear is that whatever items Harry Styles carries around with him, they must be very precious given how intent he appears to be in carrying everything himself.

After all, isn’t the whole point of being rich and famous to have someone who can carry your shopping for you, Sharpay Evans-style?  But then perhaps carrying around an unnecessary amount of tote bags helps keep one of the most famous people on the planet grounded; some real normie-behaviour. Just like the rest of us, Harry Styles has to carry his own crap around. He’s clearly a tote girlie for life.

For more musings on the bag-based decisions of Harry Styles, follow i-D on Instagram and TikTok