Tiny ‘Backpacks’ Make a Big-City Fashion Statement
Backpacks, once reserved for back-country hikers and book-toting students, are showing up in small sizes as chic city carryalls.
Most of these mini packs, ranging in size from a sheet of writing paper to a note card, actually pack more fashion punch than personal items. David Wolfe, a trend analyst for the Doneger Group in New York, calls them back purses.
“It’s like a backpack and a purse married and had a little baby,” he says.
These babies first showed up as accessories on the runways of Milan, Paris and New York. In satin, faille and metallics, they’re making the club scene. More traditional fabrications make them ideal for daytime wear.
Tiny totes from the likes of Chanel, Gucci, Anne Klein, Donna Karan and Fred Hayman of Beverly Hills add instant status. Chanel, for example, has drawstring mini backpacks in gold or bronze metallic leather that coordinate with the Chanel metallic-thread suit. With signature double-C closures on pockets and goldtone chain straps, they retail for about $1,415 at selected Chanel boutiques nationwide beginning in July.
“They’re another option to clutch bags that you just toss over your shoulder and swing around,” says Anne Fahey, Chanel public relations manager in New York. “They’re a playful version of shoulder bags for the evening.”
Due to their shrunken size, mini backpacks are more suited for after-five, when you’re not wrestling with a bag filled with appointment books and grocery lists.
“You basically can stuff in your lipstick, comb and money--most of the tiny backpacks won’t even accommodate a wallet,” says Reenie Brown, publication director for Accessories magazine in Norwalk, Conn. “They’re just a fun, gimmicky item, a tongue-in-cheek statement. They’re not going to mean a lot in the long run because, logically speaking, ‘mini’ is almost an oxymoron in terms of backpacks.”
For a quick hit of glitz, there’s no shortage of evening-worthy fabrications.
“Designers are glittering them up with rhinestones, velvet, silver and gold, silk tulle, shiny cotton and beaded chenille,” Brown says.
In other words, they’re more decorative than functional.
“A big backpack is obviously more practical,” says Steven Somers, president and CEO of Oroton, leather goods manufacturer for Anne Klein handbags in New York. “A mini backpack is just cute and has all the components of a backpack that sits on your back, but it’s tiny. It’s like a miniature Porsche. So as a classification, it’s selling very well.”
Anne Klein’s black microfiber mini pack runs about $195 at Anne Klein stores nationwide and at selected Saks Fifth Avenue stores.
A teeny backpack can work for everyday use, provided you also carry a tote. For daytime, you’ll find plenty of mini backpacks in dressed-down leather, suede and nubuck.
“If you carry a briefcase, you can still throw the backpack on your back and have a free hand. It creates ‘another hand,’ and it’s also a look,” says Paul Blum, vice president of merchandising for Kenneth Cole in New York.
Kenneth Cole offers a mini backpack, about $102 in black or sand grainy cowhide; it’s sold at Kenneth Cole stores in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco and at Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue.
“Baby boomers gained an appreciation for backpacks for toting schoolbooks,” Blum says. “And when they entered the business world, they missed the convenience. What’s fueling them now is the casual sophistication. They enable you to make a fashion statement and still maintain a corporate image. They’ve simply gone from nylon to leather.”
Which brings us full circle.
“Cavemen used skin to transport items over their shoulder,” says Ellen Goldstein, chairman of the accessories department at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. “It was really a primitive form of a backpack.”
