Backpacks are a terrifying accessory for me. There are VERY few nice ones, and they remind me of hiking and scary Canadian brands like Taiga and Mountain Equipment Co-op.

This is my idea of hell. I shudder just looking at this image...

However, I will not deny the benefits of a backpack. My life in London meant that I was often commuting an hour to work on public transport with a handbag, laptop bag, and gym bag, which is extremely uncomfortable. There was a time when I prayed that Prada could come out with a backpack and make them cool, so that I didn’t have my kilos of stuff hanging off one shoulder. When I saw that Susie Bubble posted this story on backpacks, I got excited. Can we bring back the backpack and make them fashionable?

Here are a couple of the images she posted:

I tried to do some research and find a few cool backpacks. Net A Porter and My Wardrobe had none. Topshop and Asos had these ones (the Topshop one is own brand, but the Asos one is Rick Owens for Eastpack. Eastpack has actually done some pretty cool collaborations.)

Topshop to the left, Asos to the right.

Here are more of Eastpack collaborations, this time with Eley Kishomoto and Raf Simons.

To the left, Eley Kishomoto for Eastpack. The rest are Raf Simons for Eastpack.

But the backpack jackpot was definitely at Yoox, the online discount retailer. Here are some pieces from Balenciaga, Ruco Line, Tosca Blu, Giadadanielle, Piquadro, and Parentesi, available on Yoox.

From left to right: Ruco Line, Tosca Blu, Piquadro, Parentesi, Giadadanielle, and Balenciaga.

I am having trouble getting around the idea of having a backpack, but it is defintiely something I would consider now that I have seen there are a few nice ones.

By the way, Style Bubble, mentioned above, is another one of my favorite blogs. I interviewed Susie Bubble many years ago for an article about Web 2.0 for View2 magazine, and it is great to see how far she has come since then. I definitely don’t share fashion tastes with her, but she is one of the best blogs for interesting fashion brands.