Having a Moment: Backpacks
Top row: Patterned backpacks from Rachel Comey. Middle: Actress Rachel Bilson attends the LACOSTE Pool Party (Photo by Barry Brecheisen/WireImage). The cover image from the new J Crew catalog (courtesy of J Crew). Bottom: purple backpack from Tory Burch and electric blue patterned backpack from Rachel Comey.
The backpack has forever been a utilitarian choice for hikers, cyclists, students and others who, for whatever reason, need to schlep around a lot of stuff. Yet every once in a while, it reemerges in street culture and on the runways, reinvented and begging to be taken seriously. It is one of those fashion dares that asks us to put away our sartorial security blanket—the overstuffed, everyday tote—and reconsider the silhouette that most of us left behind with Cliff Notes and Clearasil.
Miuccia Prada’s nylon reinvention of the military rucksack became a sensation in the 90s and continues to sell today nearly twenty years after its debut. High end fashion houses like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chanel offer backpacks in their boutiques nearly every season, regardless of its presence on the runways, thanks to label-loving travelers who covet a hands free, status bearing alternative to the rolling suitcase or the shoulder killing carry-on bag. But this season, the backpack is truly having a moment.
The Spring 2010 collections included Givenchy’s rock-n-roll pack with studded black leather straps, Lanvin's spare suede and leather ode to the classic student style and Miu Miu’s luxurious deerskin version that manages to balance lady-like elegance with high-powered briefcase appeal. Retailers from Barney’s New York to Urban Outfitters are stocking packs for every imaginable taste level: classic army navy styles made of canvas and other durable fabrics; polished leather packs that double as briefcases; slick metallics and graffiti prints that pay tribute to street style and glamorous preppy versions with pristine hardware, sporty stripes and clean lines.
Certain to influence the celeb-obsessed set is Rachel Bilson, who carried a tapestry backpack, seemingly vintage, at the Coachella music festival. On a more mass note, the increasingly influential J Crew featured a backpack on its May catalog cover: slung casually over the model’s shoulder as she walks barefoot on the beach at sundown. It makes you believe you too can pull it off.
And just last month designer Tory Burch, whose cult following seems to grow daily, wrote a virtual love letter to the backpack on the Huffington Post. Burch, who loves infusing nostalgia into her designs said, “The backpack is one of those really great, functional inventions that fashion has reinterpreted from time to time. The best part is that it's universal—it's ageless.”
So before the moment is over we found a bevy of styles on eBay from familiar high-end label favorites to work appropriate classics and even a few, true “fashion dares.”
1. NEW Coach Leather Backpack (buy it now price, $229.95)
2. Prada Black Nylon Backpack (buy it now price, $299)
3. Canvas and Leather Military Backpack (buy it now price, $99.99)
4. NEW Stella McCartney Nylon Backpack (buy it now price, $299)
5. NEW Jamaica Stripe hemp Backpack (buy it now price, $31.95)
6. Louis Vuitton Petit Sling Backpack (buy it now price, $899)
7. NEW Gold Backpack with Speakers (buy it now price, $49.99)
8. NEW Filson Rucksack Backpack (buy it now price, $234)
9. NEW LeSportsac Artist Matsuyama Backpack (buy it now price, $99.95)
10. J Crew Waxed Canvas Backpack Weekender (winning bid, $56.99)
11. Chanel Leather Backpack (starting bid, $499.99)
12. NEW Gucci Canvas Unisex Travel Backpack (buy it now price, $675)
13. Hermes Canvas and Leather Backpack (starting bid, $9.99)
A freelance editor who recently relocated to Austin from New York, Chris Frey previously served as the Fashion Market Director at Cookie and the Accessories Director at Lucky.