Make Room For Fashion: School Satchels...For Me!

5:45 PM, July 24 2012

By Nicola Ruiz

We all know fashion is cyclical, but it's funny when you come across real proof of the idea. Last week, I wrote about my need for a new backpack for traveling after not wanting to even look at one since high school. This week, while researching cross body bags (an absolute must-have for every mom), I came across an almost exact replica of my elementary school satchel and was immediately taken back to my Catholic school days in England. Not surprisingly, when I looked inside to see who made this trip-down-memory-lane-bag, the tag read: The Cambridge Satchel Company, Made in England. Of course!

There have been other satchels on the market, but I haven’t seen any as authentic as this, and I should know–it was a required part of my school uniform for many years. The difference with these bags, which I found in Bloomingdale's, but are also sold at Atrium New York, The W Hotel Shops (as well as Harrods and Harvey Nichols in England), is that while mine was a standard brown leather satchel, along with every other girl in my class, these updated versions are neon pink, yellow and bright blue. (And were worn by plenty of street style stars last February at fashion week.) I think I’m in love. And my favorite part is that while they’re small enough to rest comfortably on one shoulder and across your chest, leaving your hands free to tend to your kiddies, they're big enough to hold all of your necessities: wallet, phone, sunglasses, not to mention a juice box, string cheese, change of clothing, plastic dinosaur…you get the picture.