The backpack can be a tough item to pull off, but we’d offer the following suggestion: keep it as slim as possible. That means tight straps and yes, a little stretching when you put it on. It also means finding a pack that’s just large enough to hold what you need—and no larger.

This Yuketen Triangle Back Pack in the Inventory shop fits the bill quite nicely, with melton wool fabric and undyed leather straps to keep things appropriately rustic. The triangle shape means it won’t poke out above your shoulders and ruin your silhouette, and the no-frills exterior means you won’t have anyone mistaking you for a college kid. We still wouldn’t walk into any boardrooms with it, but for a weekend grocery run it’s hard to do better.

—R.B.

LINK LOVE:The Backpack

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1. Quiksilver

This California based brand has been making many style advances throughout the years. At first stores were usually only shopped by surfers and the like who only bought plain tees, board shorts and surf gear. Nowadays you can walk into a store and find tailored jeans, cool sweaters, and artist created graphic tees. They haven’t loss their connection with the origins and still have great board shorts and walk shorts perfect for the beach, pool, or just lounging around.

2. All Saints

As far as I have read there are opposing views on All Saints. The Fashion Indie crew recently payed a visit to the new Soho location and we marveled at all the stuff. I will say this probably is the priciest one on the list but the stuff looks and feels great. The reason I would say to splurge here because the stuff will last. As I believe Saynt put it, “It is the John Varvatos feel with out the John Varvatos price tag.”

3. Topman

I have on many occasions extolled my love for this British brand. It is only update, current, and the store usually has everything they have online and more. I am more excited for the new AAA collection to come out. Make this your summer hotspot if you like to go out and look amazing

4. Old Navy

Now some people might me scratching their heads when it comes to this part of the list. If you have ever been into a store you know that they do not sell haute couture gowns and suits, but they do one thing amazing well, basics. Old Navy has basics that are extremely inexpensive, and if styled correctly can look effortless and refined.

5. Vintage

Vintage is ALWAYS in style no matter what anyone says. It would be a smart idea to find out local vintage and consignment stores that have a good assortment of menswear. I know some of the ones in New York that I have frequented include Inven.Tory (which also sells current clothes at a deal), Tokio 7, and local flea markets.

Join us as we celebrate the QUAIL holiday collection exclusively for INVEN.TORY.

INVEN.TORY x Quail Holiday collaboration

December 17th, 2009

6:00-9:00 pm

237 Lafayette St. New York, NY

RSVP@Inventory.com

Cry Wolf- Located in St. Marks (111), this boutique features goods for men and women from awesome designers such as: 80%20, Chronicles of Never, Creative Recreation, S2Vs, Jeffrey Campbell, Gram, and Nudie.  Find the best shoes, accessories, and clothing from your favorite indie designers worldwide, without having to scour through tons of internet sites.

Inven.tory- Located at Lafayette and Spring, get GREAT deals (outlet pricing) on emerging designers, and catch up on the latest trends! Inven.tory’s inventory changes weekly, so stop in frequently to make sure you get the best stuff! They don’t have a site quite yet, but you can check out their blog for all the latest news about the store, and what you should be wearing.

Gargyle- Located on Orchard near Canal (16A), this store is aiming to revitalize the country club lifestyle, and features designers like Vena Cava, Fred Perry, Karen Walker, and Surface to Air (among others).  They claim to love ‘golf, tennis, concerts, and parties,’ so if you fit into any or all of the above, or just enjoy ‘anything that lets us have fun with our family and friends,’ check out Gargyle.  Shop online if you must, but to get the full country club party experience, you have to stop in!

In God We Trust- They’ve got three stores in town, 265 Lafayette, Ludlow btwn. Stanton and Rivington, and 135 Wythe in Brooklyn.  Stop in for the sickest jewelry, antique and new, as well as fun, adventurous clothing that brings out the vintage nature in everyone.  Check out their site for previews, and stop in to get the real treasures.

Tokyo 7- Located on 7th St. btwn. 2nd and 3rd Ave, this consignment store offers limitless designer goods, everything from Prada, Gucci, D&G, Miu Miu, Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Heatherette, and 5Preview.  Save on anything you could possibly want, and enjoy the ever-changing stock. No site available, sorry to all of you non-NYC natives.

Love Brigade- Located at 230 Grand Street, you’ve probably heard us talk about Love Brigade, but we want you to love them as much as we do.  They sell their original line Love Brigade, a diffusion line (ex.oh), as well as an experimental line (As We Are), as well as selected pieces from other great indie designers.  Stop in and say hi to our friends, and get some awesome clothes while you’re at it!

Assembly- Located on Ludlow btwn. Stanton and Houston, this store is just for the boys (with the occasional women’s accessory filtering through).  Get new and vintage clothing and accessories from the greatest collector in town, with tons of foreign labels and indie stuff, too.  There’s even a vinyl section in the back, so you can get your music and fashion all in once place!

Valley- Located on Elizabeth btwn. Prince and Spring, the ultimate experience in one-stop shopping.  Enjoy looking through clothing from avant-guard designers, and favorites like Grey Ant, Lady Leisure, and Caroline K, and also enjoy the skin, nail, and waxing salon, and a cafe.  This store really has it all, check it out as soon as you can!

Kiosk- Located on Spring St. btwn. Broadway and Mercer, this isn’t exactly a clothing or accessories store, but they sell a bunch of random trinkets and other goodies that would be great for a DIY project.  If you’re in one of those moods to look for something, but you aren’t exactly sure what, head over to Kiosk.  Plus, they’re right next to that window that sells the mini cupcakes, which is awesome.

First Among Equals- Located at 177 Orchard, this store sells 0044, Bess, Dunlin, Michel Berandi, and more (just for guys).  First Among Equals has recently opened a dark downstairs that you enter through a narrow spiral staircase, and enjoy a private shopping feel with handpicked clothes from designers, offering a rare flair that you won’t find anywhere else. Check out their site for up-to-date sales, but don’t miss out on this unique shopping experience.

What’s your favorite store in New York City?

Let me start out by stating that I am not normally a superstitious person: I don’t throw salt over my shoulder when I spill some, I don’t think twice about walking under ladders and my only chagrin about breaking a mirror is that I have one less surface in which to admire myself.  After this week though, I must say that I absolutely believe in omens, especially when delivered in the form of clothing.

Fashion is my religion so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that it was a pair of pants that decided the fate of my uneventful week.  It was with great excitement that I broke my recession shopping rule and purchased a pair of Cheap Monday dark navy pants with bright red polka dots (size 25 inch waist!) from Inven.tory.  In anticipation for the Topshop opening party, I knew that I needed something funky and fun as I would be competing with some major celebrity wattage for my Patrick McMullan photo credit.

When Tuesday night came around, I could no longer contain my enthusiasm for the pants and decided to give them a test run at Nylon Magazine’s 10^th Birthday Party.  Held at the Shang Restaurant in the “it” hotel of the moment, the Thompson LES, I thought they would be the perfect statement for a downtown, hipster party.

Alexandra and I had somehow confused the time, arriving half an hour before the party was scheduled to start so after making friends with the publicists at the door, we went across the street to a little French bistro to kill time.  As fifteen minutes turned into an hour, a veritable throng of bodies in furs, leather jackets and high heeled pumps had formed a line around the block.

Finally refusing to wait any longer, we pushed our way to the front and immediately entered thanks to our earlier brown nosing.  Thinking we’d walk upstairs to a nearly empty room as we still hadn’t seen anyone else coming through the door, we were shocked when the entire restaurant was packed with the who’s who of the downtown scene.

I was disappointed to see that there was only one photographer in front of a meager step and repeat.  “I brought out the polka dot pants for this?” I whispered to Alexandra incredulously as we posed for pictures.  After pushing to get a drink at the besieged bar, we moved into the back room where we ran into Richie Rich hanging on the arm of singer Kat DeLuna.

We were quickly tiring of the pushing and shoving around us so as soon as we overheard that there was a VIP gifting suite on the 7^th floor, we ditched the frenetic main room and made our way to the promise land (so we thought).  It turned out that the joke was on us as the alcohol had run dry upstairs and the most ‘famous’ person was a castmate from The Real World: Brooklyn.

Slightly befuddled, we made our way back downstairs where things had started improving.  The crowd had thinned out but the ratio of celebrities to commoners had increased.  I ran into my friend, America’s Next Top Model Winner Jaslene Gonzalez, who was hanging out with club impresario Matt Levine.

In the other room was a dour-looking Taylor Momson, party hopping from the private Topshop dinner at Balthazar.  Inexplicably, Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls) was hanging out and looking rather out of place among the slightly grungy hipster set.  Definitely non-hipster, though, was Lydia Hearst, back from her charity work in Africa and wearing a custom silver corset by The Blondes—the same one Britney wore in her Circus album.

There was something slightly unfulfilling about the night and lack of press so Alexandra and I were out of commission for the next evening, vowing to come back strong for the Topshop party on Thursday.

When Thursday arrived, I once again donned the polka dot pants, determined to get them the press they deserved.  Our intel had told us that the Topshop party was in the store at 7PM.  I thought this was rather strange as the store had opened for business that day and it seemed unlikely that the place would be cleared and cleaned up for such an early party.

My suspicions were confirmed when the line snaking outside the store was filled with shoppers instead of socials.  After some urgent texting, we discovered that the party was actually at 9PM at The Box.  Already dressed to impress, we decided we’d do a “filler” event before Topshop to kill time and get a buzz rolling.  This was to be our downfall.

We bounced around from no-list to no-list event, the worst of which was the Marc Ecko store ‘party’ where a massive man straight out of a Suge Knight video was actually walking around with a pimp cane and hat.  The last time I felt that out of place was on 2^nd grade picture day when all the boys and girls were in their Sunday best and my mother had irreverently put me in a LA Laker’s jersey because she didn’t want to buy the photos anyway.

After forty miserable minutes, we left to attend the Complex Magazine party at Anchor Bar celebrating the Kanye West cover.  Once again, we had arrived early and were told to wait, something for which I have no patience.  When fifteen minutes passed and we were still on the wrong side of the velvet rope, I had had enough.  The last straw was when the flack outside told me they weren’t letting anyone inside as he opened the rope for a group of five to come inside.

I had such a bad taste in my mouth from the night that I refused to prolong my pain by going over to The Box.  Such was my week.  If you disapprove of the dearth of excitement, don’t blame me—blame the pants.

Adrien Field

Adrien@AdrienField.com