Coco Chanel started her business not with fabulous dresses, jersey nor tweed twin-sets… but with hats! The French orphan who grew up to be a cabaret singer… was then a milliner, and went on with hats for over a decade before her early patrons – she paid all of them back afterwards – allowed her to make clothes.
Chanel is a surprisingly modern fashion house, just like its creator. If the eighties almost killed the brand in the early 1900s – Gabrielle had had a few issues with modernity, as weird as it seems –, Karl Lagerfeld was named after the Queen mother left the ship and knew how to put back some rad avant-garde into each of his collections from 1983 to 2018!
Restless, modern, classic yet edgy, sophisticated yet cool… Chanel made a name on a paroxysmal femininity drinking champagne as much as camomile and loving flats as much as 12 inches heels at night… or in the morning!
That rad modernity obviously brought streetwear to thrive even alongside the Lady’s items at Chanel. Very, very posh and not aiming at all at recreating some sort of streetwear vibe, these backpacks resemble more luxury handbags for modern and city life than actual backpacks… and that is what you will love about Chanel’s creations.
So, let yourself be inspired or even fall in love, these Chanel beauties are only waiting for you and your feet to adopt them (on your shoulders or your elbow: these backpacks are to be carried like pieces of jewellery!)
Chanel’s Gabrielle mini backpack: the cool version of the 5.55 handbag
This very cute and simple handbag carries a name that has a lot of meaning at the Chanel’s head office. Of course, as you must know, Gabrielle is the one and only women we owe the fashion brand to and her sleek yet very luxury touch is definitely present at the core of every feature of this Gabrielle backpack.
This one bag is the most easy to pull off and the one that will always be in fashion, whether you are looking for a piece to invest in or a cool accessory that will fit any outfit.
This Chanel backpack is very simple: in the shape of a bucket bag, a silver-tone and gold-tone metal entangled with leather chain closes the bag on the top and acts as your single shoulder or double shoulder strap.
A semi-rigid plain calf leather base offers stability when you put your bag on the café’s table and the padded signature calf-leather core of the bag offers its very luxury look for more refinement and elegance. Eventually, and quite obviously, a jewellery single double-C logo is attached on the front of the bag for a sophisticated signature.
This Chanel Gabrielle small backpack is your ideal go-to backpack if you are looking for a nice touch and an ever-lasting piece of cool in your ward robe. You will not fit your whole house in this bag but its very reasonable size is all you need for a full day starting with your office, then your lunch with friends and your night at your favourite cocktail place. Easy to wear and fitting all silhouettes, it is an absolutely good purchase you will never regret.
Chanel’s graphic backpack: the most modern backpack that Chanel ever issued
Modernity was key to Gabrielle Chanel and kept on being a corner stone of every collection issued by Chanel so far. It was then logical that the handbags – as sophisticated and luxury they are – were to convey as well some sort of raw graphic modernity too.
This backpack is the embodiment of Chanel’s talent for creating pieces that are at once very elegant and very contemporary. Easy to go, all black, this backpack is the busy and style-addict woman’s dream made true… in leather and gold metal, please.
The line of this backpack is a cool graphic shape with a flap top… the masterpiece of the bag, with its simple plain black precious lambskin and its equally plain black embossed lambskin double-C logo.
On this same part of the bag, a gold-tone metal and black leather chain works as a cool and luxury hand handle hold onto the bag with golden round rivets. The two shoulder straps are padded lambskin that give a sober, simple, luxury touch and fit any of your outfit.
This Chanel backpack is made for an urban life and a sleek and cool, luxury addict fashionista. Really, to me, it is the best handbag that Chanel has done because it is not a hundred percent Chanel, it fits a look that could just as well be Yves Saint Laurent inspired too.
Rock’n’roll but not cliché, nice but not too naïve, the overall design has something uber desirable. Its plain black look gives you a chance to wear it every day with your entire wardrobe, whether you are a lilac addict looking for a nastier piece or an already very grunge style convinced woman.
Chanel’s classic backpack: a backpack shouting your allegiance to fashion and luxury
Practicality and luxury are mixed up together in this signature Chanel design that certainly will catch your eye if you are looking for a very Chanel piece to add to your handbags and mini backpacks collection.
This design has this kind of perfection that makes it as good a match with your wardrobe as with you mother’s and grandmother’s – it is the kind of handbag that you will pass on to your younger loved ones… and the kind they will covet for as long as you have not set your mind on handing it over to them!
Made in various colours, the baseline of this backpack by Chanel is: grained calfskin and gold-tone metal… with a Chanel twist to the simplicity of these two very, very luxury materials. With its flap top signed by a metallic double-C logo and signature gold and leather chain for a handle, the very DNA of Chanel is embodied here.
A zip front pocket in a – equally – signature padded leather will halp you not loose your precious little items in the core of the bag that is shaped like a bucket bag.
Practical with its pocket and well locked inner core, this backpack is made for elegant and elegance-seeking women. In Chanel boutique, you will find a wide range of colours to pick from and so make this iconic Chanel backpack truly a singular masterpiece of your handbags’s closet.
There are no outfits that would not match with this very cute looking backpack, whether you are the streetwear or twin-set king of girl. Be careful with it because I can assure you this will be an everlasting piece of your wardrobe from your twenties until you are eighty years old if you take good care of it.
Chanel’s Classic Coco: the vintage backpack you have to find and own
Vintage Chanel items are an absolute go-to whether you are looking for desirable not produced anymore items or you just want something out of the ordinary… or if your are looking for a piece that will sell quick and good if you ever (can) get bored of it.
This Classic Coco backpack dates from a few years back (I would say the nineties without being so sure on that though) and definitely has lost none of its charm or trendy look. Good thing with vintage Chanel is that you will find it easy and quick for it is widely sought for and sold all over the world.
The overall shape of the bag is a nice rectangle made of black satin lambskin with a flap top and a double-C signature logo clasp that is as practical as it is sophisticated. The classic Chanel diamond padding makes the the bag a not so plain and very luxury piece that you can not help but fall in love with.
The two shoulder straps start from a single rivet at the top of the bag and part from one shoulder to the other in a V – that detail is maybe mundane but it is very, very cool when you carry it on your back!
If I can not date exactly this bag, it is because its elegance and very sophistication though in a so simple way prevents me from being sure about it. Out of time and so very trendy, this backpack by Chanel is like most of what Chanel does: an absolutely gorgeous creation about which you don’t care for the date but just die to have for yourself. Easy to go and fitting all silhouettes, vintage if often the best!
Chanel, the backpacks for elegant women
Chanel is a fashion brand that is known for its luxury touch on daily practical items. You would not have expected less of them when they tackled backpacks making: practical as much as resolutely lady-approved piece of fashion, these bags are made to last and accompany you all day with style.
