Fashion Forward: Bags to help You nail the Vaporwave aesthetic

Some things in life are genuinely unforgettable and just thinking about them brings a deep sense of nostalgia that captivates us as much as it comforts us.

Maybe it’s something simple: The smell of a cosmetic product that was popular during your childhood or the sound of your family’s old car. maybe it’s something a lot more meaningful like a photo or an object that reminds you of the collective mood felt by society during certain decades.

Whatever it might be, those particular feelings of nostalgia are a lot more powerful than we think. They help us connect our past experiences with our present ones, creating a full and authentic existence defined by everything that was and all that potentially could be.

This longing for the good old days also helps unify us; It helps us build bonds with others who remember aspects of the past that oftentimes feel too tough to describe. often you really did just have to be there to fully understand.

Now in 2022, there aren’t any decades I see a lot more of a longing for online than the 1980s and ‘90s.

Maybe it’s the Millenials looking back on their childhoods with fondness, or it’s the Gen Zers romanticizing a time before their own. Still, there’s one group of Internet users that have taken some of the a lot more obscure features of the ‘80s and ‘90s and revived them into a complete aesthetic movement demonstrated by means of music, art, and fashion.

It’s called Vaporwave.

Vaporwave started online as a subgenre of electronic music sometime during the 2010s. artists would chop and mix beats from different types of “easy listening” genres (jazz, lounge, R’n’B.) with sounds of digital synthesizers. This experimental style of music seemed new and cutting edge for lots of western listeners, but Vaporwave’s upbeat mix of rhythms actually has roots in an older genre of music called “City Pop” that was very popular in Japan throughout the 1970s and ‘80s.

These two decades were defined by a sense of lightheartedness that lots of Japanese citizens felt due to the economic prosperity of the time. people felt energized and optimistic, so artists made music to match society’s positive outlook.

Arguably, this same sense of calm and abundance wasn’t felt by Americans until the 1980s through the end of the ‘90s. This 20 year period was regarded as one of America’s golden eras that pertained to an end with the recession and “dot com” crash of the early 2000s.

Those two events (along with 9/11) changed people’s lives as they knew them, but many, especially followers of Vaporwave, long for the feel-good features of the 1990s and have found ways to incorporate them into a a lot more modern, yet nostalgic, take on art and fashion.

Vaporwave fashion is absolutely unconventional, but experimenting can be fun! So here are a few rad bags to help you nail the Vaporwave aesthetic.

Eye-Catching Colors

Sweet pastel colors along with lively pinks, blues, and greens dominate the aesthetic’s color palette. very expressive colors were popular during the ‘80s and ‘90s because a lot of motion pictures were filmed in warm lighting, making brighter colors needed to stick out on camera. try to choose bags with eye-catching colors or ones that will reflect a lot of light.

Louis Vuitton monogram PVC Christopher GM backpack
via Fashionphile

$4,225

Chanel PVC Lambskin Filigree round Chain Bag
via Fashionphile

$2,395

Gaudy Geometric Shapes

Geometric patterns of the ‘80s and ‘90s are probably some of the most immediately recognizable design styles. If you’re trying to find something authentically Vaporwave-style, you’re going to have to choose vintage Fendi. (Is there any pattern Fendi hasn’t used?)

If you want something a bit a lot more modern, you can just select either the Bao Bao bag or one of the cute triangle bags that are currently on the market.

Bao Bao Issey Miyake Wring small Matte carry Bag
via Bloomingdales

$775

Fendi printed Satchel
via Vestiaire collective

$486

Cool Chrome

Many Vaporwave accessories and motifs feature (imitation) chrome because it’s reminiscent of what people in the past imagined things in the future would look like. While the present day doesn’t look quite like what The Jetsons predicted, you can still add some artificial futuristic elements by picking out a metallic or iridescent bag.

Balenciaga XS hourglass Bag
via Luisaviaroma

$2,490

Mansur Gavriel tiny Mini bucket
via Mansur Gavriel

$495

Fun Fanny Packs

Brands now call these “belt bags,” but we all know the truth: they’re fanny packs, and they’re the easiest way to look like you stepped out of a time machine. need I say more?

Gucci 80s patch Convertible Belt Bag
via Rebag

$805