University of Texas: Backpack Fashion Show

One of the things we love to do when visiting a new city is to flaneur the university campus. We love the youthful vibrancy and are usually rewarded with a few surprises. We made some very interesting discoveries when flaneuring post-secondary campuses (see links at end of blog).

So when in Austin, we decided to spend a Thursday morning checking out the Blanton Art Museum (free all day Thursday) and then flaneur the campus to see what hidden gems we cold find.

After finishing wandering the museum (highly recommended), we just followed the student pedestrian traffic into the centre of campus. Quickly we were swarmed by students trying to give us free stuff. I still have no clue what was going on or why they were giving away things.

**I think there is only one student in this photo who doesn't have a backpack.**

Button Making Fun For Everyone!

Eventually, we did stop for four young women, who didn’t want any money, who asked us if we wanted to make personalize buttons for free. Who could resist? In the end we made five and took a sixth one from their pre-made bin. They didn’t want to take any money, but we gave them a donation.

**Who could resist these smiles and the opportunity to make art buttons?**

Backpacks Gone Wild

We wandered a bit further and the foot traffic was incredible, it was literally like an ant farm. Maybe a better analogy would be like a NYC subway station at rush hour. We decided to just sit and absorb the amazing energy.

After a few minutes I said to Brenda “I bet 90% of the students are wearing backpacks.” She looked around and said, “I bet it is higher. I am having a hard time finding a single student who doesn’t have one.”

We then wondered when did the backpack become such an integral part of our everyday lives. We often laugh when we walk by elementary schools and the backpack is almost as big as the child. It seems like people young and old don’t go anywhere these days without a backpack.

Backpack as a fashion statement!

If you Google “ What does your backpack say about you?” you will get over 34 million results in 1 second.

I am not going to bore you with what they had to say. But I have integrated some fashion quotes with the postcard images that I thought might stimulate some backpack as a fashion statement thinking.

Has the backpack has become not only critical to our everyday life, but is it also a fashion statement.

Below is a small sample of the backpack fashion show we experience at lunch at the University of Texas, Austin, campus on March 3, 2016. I hope you enjoy the show.

Coco Chanel

'Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.'