By Tommy Fitzpatrick, Business of Fashion
NEW YORK — Two decades ago, it was a simple backpack that first placed Prada squarely on the map, helping to launch the brand as both a fashion empire and a household name. These days, backpacks are mostly associated with the campus culture of schools and Silicon Valley technology companies. But lately, the eminently practical carryalls have re-emerged in the high fashion context, as a street style staple and a retail sellout once again.
One of the backpack designs. Photo by Streetpeeper.com
Miuccia Prada’s famously understated backpack — made from the same functional, waterproof nylon used by the Italian army for its parachutes — took years to catch on. “No one wanted the backpack because it didn’t scream luxury,” Mrs Prada recalled to Dana Thomas, author of Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, in 2006. Indeed, though it was originally introduced in 1984, it wasn’t until almost a decade later that the simple black nylon bag achieved ‘it’ status, retailing for $450 and inciting a worldwide craze for all things Prada.
By contrast, today’s fashion backpacks are often openly luxurious. The Row made headlines for its patchwork fur ($16,900) and alligator ($34,000) rucksacks. Lanvin is currently proposing an iridescent calfskin backpack, while luxury men’s e-tailer Mr Porter stocks a $5,550 crocodile backpack by Santiago Gonzalez, son of handbag designer Nancy Gonzalez.
“The backpack in the past read more casual,” says Tomoko Ogura, senior fashion director of Barneys New York. “But as fashion designers introduced the style in luxurious materials, they attracted a new customer.”
Gucci, Saint Laurent and Christopher Kane have all launched their own fashionable backpacks, rendered in calf hair or leather, and retailing for north of $2,000. This fall, Raf Simons debuted his fourth backpack collaboration with Eastpak (more reasonably priced at around $300 apiece). And Junya Watanabe went so far as to create an entire Spring 2014 men’s collection inspired by backpacks.
Read the full story by Tommy Fitzpatrick from Business of Fashion.
