Fanny Packs Are Back

After a two decade slumber, the fashion accessory most closely aligned with "scary American tourists at the Louvre" has reared its unsightly head again. The Fanny Pack has been resurrected for a new generation, although few designers (other than the presumably ironic American Apparel) dare utter the "F-word" to describe the hand bag.

At the Wall Street Journal's Page 1, Rachel Rhodes does a little trend-spotting and finds the Pack gracing the likes of Ciara (in her "Gimme Dat" music video) and Rihanna and expected to show up multiple times on the runway during New York's upcoming Fashion Week. She finds whimiscal designers fawning over the bag's practical roots (one Coach designer was struck by the "functional aspect of something but less about actually carrying something") and speaks to the true believers (one devotee owns 20 "convenient" Fanny Packs).

Who should be credited for this unlikely revival? Here's a clue:

That sense of fashion whimsy piqued the curiosity of Beth Buccini, co-owner of the influential New York boutique Kirna Zabête. Last summer, while browsing photographs on the Internet, Ms. Buccini became intrigued by an image of an attractive young woman sporting a fanny pack at the Coachella music festival. She turned to her business partner, Sarah Easley, and said: "It's time."