A colleague of mine recently asked me for laptop bag suggestions.  Actually, she’s quite an amazing colleague and has a blog of her own!  She was instrumental in helping me find work-life balance at a time when I was knee-deep in my PhD studies, working full-time, and mother to a less than a year old son.  Life was beyond cray.  But, she helped things in perspective.  Her advice has made all the difference and part of the reason I haven’t fallen off the track and can now sanely claim to be an assistant professor on the tenure track.

So, when she asked me for fashion advice, I thought: Hello!  This is your time to pay her back!!  Because naturally, my fashion advice will likely ALSO be life changing.  LOL.  I kid, but hopefully it will at the very least make her a tiny bit happy. 🙂

Anyway!  Here are a few of my favorites on the market right now:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10

I personally own bags 2, 3, and a variation of 10.  I recently attended training in San Francisco where I had the option to walk to and from the training – about 1.5 mile walk from my hotel.  We were advised to pack a backpack for this purpose.  I don’t own a backpack.  But, the Lilly Jade bag pictured third in the visual above can hang over your shoulder AND also function as a backpack.  So that’s what I used.  It worked really well!

Otherwise, I also traveled with my Louis Vuitton Neverfull and found that to be quite handy as well; albeit different of course, because I was not able to wear it as a backpack. Anyway, that’s why I included backpacks in this post, even though they aren’t technically laptop bags.  Most of the true laptops bags I found online were quite boring, hence the variety of types of bags featured above.

Whenever I am shopping for a work or laptop bag, I usually ask myself the following questions:

1. Does the bag strap fit comfortably over my shoulder?  You should be able to answer ‘yes’ to this even when wearing a super thick coat.
2. Is it heavy?  If you are carrying a dinosaur computer, then you don’t want to start off by carrying it in an already heavy bag.  Light weight is key!
3. Will it scratch my computer if I throw it in without a case?  This is also important for me because I don’t always remember to put my laptop in a case.  So, lots of zippers and the like are a deal-breaker for me.
4. Does it match my style?  What colors and types of clothing do you wear most often?  If you tend to dress up for work, options 4 and 8 above might not be for you.  But really, who are we kidding? Number 8 and it’s über fashionable logo will go with ANY outfit, so it’s a done deal in my book.  Go Stanford!! 😀
5. How much is the bag?  Above, I included bags from Target, Nordstrom, Lilly Jade, Kohl’s, Louis Vuitton, Tumi, Tory Burch and Kate Spade.  Some of the luxury brands will run a tab close to $2K.  If that’s not your cup of tea, something like the Target or Denko bags might be more for you (<$100).  But, keep in mind that even if you lust after the designer bags, you might be able to find them for a lot less on eBay, Fashionphile, or other similar consignment websites and shops.  So, not all is lost just because the original retail price is out of your price range!  Don’t give up hope!!
6. Did you not find what you were looking for in the women’s department?  Worry not!  Look in the men’s department.  Don’t pay the pink tax if you don’t have to!  In fact, two of the bags above were found in the men’s department.  I’ll let you figure out which ones.

So there you have it!  Note that most of the bags pictured above come in other colors, but for some, black seemed the default color, so that’s what I included.  Click the numbers under the graphic above and you’ll be guided to the shop-able pages for each.

Do you have a bag you love to carry your laptop in that is not pictured in the graphic below?  Comment below so we can all learn about other options!  Otherwise, happy shopping!

PS – Don’t forget to use eBates if you are going to shop online: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=BCJ5ZJCA1459L9913vL%2BJw%3D%3D&eeid=28187.  That’s my referral link if you decide to sing up!

PPS- After writing this post, I learned about Lo & Sons.  This bag looks like something I might get for myself!  Check it out if the bags above didn’t quite strike your fancy!

Until next time!  Stay ‘Chic’!