This Reversible Military Backpack Is Marc Newson's Perfect Bag
Everything that Marc Newsom designs is rooted in a desire to improve the everyday. His world-famous furniture is intended to be both hardy and comfortable, his approach to fashion design is rooted in utilitarian workwear codes, and his wearable objects, which include the Apple Watch, are steeped in notions of uniforms — as in, the things you reach for daily.
Newsom's PORTER backpack, part of a two-piece capsule designed for the bag brand's 90th anniversary, is the designer's idealized daily driver carryall, a useful paean to tough items.
Reiterating the motifs that informed Newsom's 85th anniversary PORTER partnership, the designer created a daypack and a helmet bag, both riffing on PORTER's preferred military codes while channeling Newsom's purpose-driven design inclinations.
Again, hickory stripes play on the bags' exteriors — but wait! They can be reversed to instead showcase PORTER's signature bomber jacket-inspired nylon shells. It's a choose-your-own-adventure type of situation, as Newsom prompts the wearer to decide how these bags, which both retail on PORTER's website for around $700 (helmet bag) and $1,100 (backpack), are best utilized for all-day all-terrain adventures.
The notion here was to create the ultimate anytime carryall, one that shapeshifts to meet needs. The leather zip and hickory stripe adopt a gritty affect while the nylon twill makes for a more futuristic feel, but both sides are equally durable.
Like two sides of the same sturdy coin, they draw from different elements of hardwearing garments to make something that feels suitable for any desire. These bags are perfect in their finishing and facade, as elegant as they are unexpected. They do it all. And that is Newsom's intent.
“I became tired of trying to find a place for phones, glasses and various other items that are needed every day,” Newsom said upon creating his 85th anniversary PORTER bag, indicating that the resulting product was intended to fill a daily necessity as much as an aesthetic ideal.
So it goes for most of PORTER's reliable innovations, be they weatherproof layering pieces or dedicated headphone pouches but though Newsom shares this form-follows-function approach, his forms are also quite dynamic.
How do you see hickory-stripe handbags, anyways?
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