Remember the days of the fanny pack? That purely functional little nylon number that hung off our hips back in the 80's? Ok, maybe I'm dating myself now but I'm pretty sure I had a flourescant green or pink one at some point. It probably matched my tube socks.....
The fanny pack is among the top 10 things I swore I would never allow back into my wardrobe, along with capris, skinny jeans, overalls, jelly shoes and a few other unfortunate icons of the 80's. Oooooh man am I eating my words now days. I think I own one of each of those, with the exception of jelly shoes. Now in my 40's I'm realizing the value of function but I desperately crave beauty. I'm a practical person, so they need to be one in the same if they're going to make it into my cramped closet. When hip purses (belt bags, ok, fanny packs) started making a come back a few years ago I scoffed immediately. No way was I going to accept this relic of a bygone era. Just like those huge cans of Aqua Net, this little number was to be forever forgotten, shoved under the rug and not talked about....But, with time and a relentless neck injury (from knitting...yes, but that's another blog post:) I came to appreciate the potential of the...um....newly branded 'cool' Hip Purse.
Oooooh once I gave myself the freedom to forget the unfortunate, rip stop flourescent nylon past and design a brand new hip purse for the future, well, inspiration took off! It's my new love, my new favorite and apparently I'm not alone. Hip purses have made a fierce come back and the reason is simple. If done right, they're beautiful, classy, and best of all, practical! You've gotta try it.
