Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
A bucket bag is a bag with a round or oval base, tall straight sides and a wide open top, shaped like the bucket it is named after. This page defines the shape, traces it to the champagne carrier of 1932, and separates it from the tote bag and the drawstring pouch.
A bucket bag is a handbag whose body copies a bucket: a flat, round or oval bottom from which the sides rise straight up, making a container that is deeper than it is wide, with a wide mouth at the top. The defining parts are the base and the depth; size, material and even closure vary. The traditional closure is a drawstring threaded through eyelets or a casing at the top edge and pulled into a cinch, but structured bucket bags with open tops and separate interior pouches are equally common, and many add a top handle beside the shoulder strap.
The shape's origin is a matter of record. In 1932 Louis Vuitton was asked by the champagne trade for a bag that would carry bottles safely, and the resulting Noé — named for Noah — held five bottles, four upright and one inverted in the middle, secured by its drawstring. The Noé remains in production, and its proportions are the bucket bag's standard. The shape passed into ordinary fashion as a casual leather bag in the later twentieth century and was revived prominently in 2013 by the label Mansur Gavriel, after which it became a standard style across the market.
A tote bag is flat and rectangular, wider than it is deep, with two parallel handles and an open rectangular mouth; a bucket bag is round in plan and deeper than it is wide, with one strap or one handle set. A drawstring pouch is soft and baseless — a cloth or leather sack that collapses when empty — while a bucket bag has a firm, flat base that lets it stand upright on its own. Many designs borrow a single feature: a tote fitted with a cinch top is still a tote, and a pouch given a hard, flat base has become a bucket. The product side of the style, including its drawstring, open and structured forms, is covered in the Fashion Influence guide to bucket bags.
A tall handbag with a round or oval flat base, straight rising sides and an open or drawstring top — deeper than it is wide, like a bucket.
Champagne bottles. Louis Vuitton's Noé of 1932 was designed to hold five bottles, four upright and one inverted in the centre, secured by its drawstring.
No. Drawstring names a closure and bucket names a shape with a firm, flat base. Many bucket bags do close with a drawstring, but open-top bucket bags exist, and a soft drawstring pouch with no base is not a bucket bag.