July 19th, 2011 by Oscar Farber

During my semester abroad in Paris, there was a girl in our group who had one of those little fashion backpacks once so popular among the trio of ladies on Friends. She was wearing it after the mini-backpack heyday had come and gone, and I remember thinking: “Really? A fashion backpack?”

Yes, really. A fashion backpack.

It’s hard to say if she was behind or ahead of the curve back then—style tides are cyclical things—but if she wore her little black backpack today, she’d be right on-trend. I’ve been eyeing up the Marc by Marc Jacobs Classic Q Backpack for everyday. Not unlike my Paris pal’s Prada, the MMJ bag is large enough to carry a few essentials, but would be too small were I still toting a La Societé Française textbook across arrondissements. For the music festivals on my summer agenda, I’m taking a page out of Fashion Director Kate Ciepluch’s book. She made her way through the Coachella sun with a slouchy, utilitarian Alternative backpack.

And if you’re not quite ready to go back to the backpack, brands like Linea Pelle and Alexander Wang (the Addison and the Marti styles, respectively) have smartly made their knapsacks convertible.

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