Covet: The Big-Kid Backpack

The chicest way to go hands-free now.

As I walked to work this morning, juggling my cell phone, my shoe bag, my laptop bag, my regular bag and my dripping cup of Starbucks coffee (because all cups of Starbucks coffee will drip all over your hand as you carry them, no matter if you have one of those handy little green stoppers; it must be some sort of poor lid design, right?*), I thought for the millionth time: I wish I had a damn backpack. To be able to trudge to work almost entirely unencumbered, to be able to open a door without having to do the weird kick-it-open and then shove-an-elbow-in-it maneuver, ah, this would be a level of freedom I haven’t had since I was six and decided backpacks were ugly. Enter Elizabeth & James’ pebbled leather backpack, which manages to be both sophisticated and practical. (Thankfully, it’s also about $54,455 less than the prescription-pill-covered backpack turned out by E&J’s sister line, The Row.)

*It’s not just me!