Personally, I hate backpacks, and only carry one when absolutely necessary. In my briefcase, I carry my business stuff, and in my gym bag, I carry my gym stuff. But my backpack is always a bundle of cluttered confusion, with things I have no reason why I put in there in the first place. Let’s not even talk about trying to squeeze into a crowded bus or subway car with the damned thing on my back. What a nightmare! But I (grudgingly) purchased an ordinary, black SWISSGEAR backpack because I really do sometimes find it necessary. No, it’s not pretty, but it gets the job done.

But don’t think I haven’t taken notice of the interesting backpacks made by some of the world’s biggest fashion brands. I spotted a GUCCI backpack here in New York recently, sitting snug on the back of a young commuter. I thought it was gorgeous, and my first inclination was to take it from him, but I don’t do that any more (just kidding, I never did that). I had forgotten about it, then received an email from GUCCI two days later announcing the pending arrival of their new large backpacks to their shops. You may have seen them on the SS19 runway, borne effortlessly by GUCCI’s finest bodies.

Before Alessandro Michele became its creative director, the only thing I liked about GUCCI was its name (I didn’t hate it, I just couldn’t be bothered, I guess). You have to admit, the man breathed new life into the brand. I don’t think it hyperbolic to say that anyone who can take something as ugly and at times unwieldily as a backpack, and turn it into a desirable objet de mode, has to be nothing short of genius. My praise, however, isn’t for the entire line, but specifically for the floral velvet version. The architecture of the backpack itself is brilliant, but proliferation of the GUCCI logo in their designs has always been a bone of contention with me, and one of the reasons I didn’t care for the brand to begin with. The floral design, I feel, represents the new GUCCI. It has Alessandro Michele’s signature written all over it, and (as you can clearly see here) it is stunning. Of course, if you’d like to see the other backpacks in the line, you’re certainly free to do so.