When push comes to shove in the proverbial arena of accessories, I’d say I’m more of a shoes girl – if that wasn’t obvious enough. But recently, and recently it really is, I’ve started taking more of an interest in bags – surprisingly they’re not just things to carry stuff around in.

I was super duper lucky last December: if you remember I won my first ever MAC lipstick, as well as being one of the winners of the F.B.L. Bloggers giveaway in collaboration with LYDC London. I was pretty much sat by the door waiting to see which bag I’d receive, until I was packed back off to Uni and had to wait for my mum to post it to me. So much waiting, but it got to me before the start of second semester and so has replaced my array of fabric totes as my ‘uni bag’ and become a wardrobe essential.

Backpacks in general are something I’m a massive fan of, despite shunning them for a while throughout high school. (I was young and naive and didn’t want an ugly bag, it was Roxy or nah.) It’s super handy to have both hands free, and not having to compensate for one arm bearing the brunt of the weight means that my back is happier. I spent a ridiculously long amount of time during my first few months in Korea trying to find a perfect uni bag – and ended up with a backpack… it’s a bit of a gravitational pull.

When my mum messaged saying that a backpack had arrived for me, I was all sorts of over the moon and obviously asked for photos immediately. Finding out it had a tartan front panel was the icing on an already pretty ace cake: I have a major soft spot for tartan. So I think that covers how much I am in love with the design – you can’t exactly go wrong with the black-and-tartan mix, what is the bag itself actually like?

Well, for starters, the material is structured so it holds its shape very well. That’s not to say it isn’t soft, though (because it is) it’s just that the bag actually stands up because the base is a little bit reinforced with little feet. As it’s a faux leather material, it’s very easy to keep clean and is far more waterproof than my canvas roxy bags and other totes, which is really useful for the weather at the moment – I don’t have to worry about my notebooks being soaked through when the next storm of choice decides to hit.

To close, there’s a popper inside the main compartment of the bag, and also one to secure the top flap to the body. Security wise this isn’t as brill as I’d like – but it does mean that I don’t forget to make sure that everything is secure. Not that anyone wants to steal my thoroughly thrilling Korean Buss/management notes but hey. There’s also a compartment at the back which is zip fastened

Inside, there’s one main compartment, another, smaller zipped area, and some pockets to store things that you want to reach quickly. Pretty standard setup. It’s fully lined with the LYDC printed fabric, so it has quite a luxe feel to it. You can also shape the bag with the little poppers at the top, which I think is really cute. The size of the main compartment isn’t on the massive size, though it fits an A4 folder quite nicely, along with notebooks, pencil case, my filofax, glasses case, a water bottle, and other daily necessities – and I know that sounds like a lot but you can’t exactly fit your laptop… or at least I can’t, not that I’d want my laptop in my backpack anyway.

The luxe feel carries on in the external hardware of the bag, which is all polished metal in a pretty gold colour – with the LYDC stamps on the zips and jumprings. I think the only issue I have is the length of the straps – they work well for me as I’m quite petite, but in my opinion they run a little on the short side. Obviously this depends on how you wear backpacks.

All in all, I really do love this bag – it’s a lovely addition to my collection and no doubt you’re going to be seeing far more of it in my day-to-day outfits.

What do you think? Let me know below if you’re in favour of backpacks – or tell me which are your favourite LYDC styles – here are some of mine:

♥

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