Fanny packs

The belt pouch is older than pockets. Ötzi carried one 5,000 years ago, medieval Europeans wore them until clothing grew pockets, and the Scottish sporran survived because a kilt has none. The modern American version, made of nylon and other synthetics, came into use in the 1980s, riding the fitness boom that put gym clothes on the street. Sports Illustrated had listed a $10 leather "fanny pack" for cross-country skiers in a 1954 Christmas guide; the name comes from wearing the pouch over the buttocks, which is also why the British call it a bum bag.

By the end of the 1980s it was everywhere. Adweek reportedly named the fanny pack its product of the year for 1988, and in June 1990 Seinfeld's Jerry was already suggesting that George was more likely to get dumped for the fanny pack he was wearing than for anything he had said. Fashion took it up: Karl Lagerfeld made Chanel fanny packs in the house's quilted black lambskin for Fall 1994, called belt bags, and Louis Vuitton and Gucci followed later in the decade. The rest of the country got theirs free, handed out by marketing departments, beer brands and stadium promotions, and wore them on vacation.

That was the problem. Overexposure did what it does, and by the end of the 1990s a fanny pack was a joke, shorthand for the tourist and the suburban dad, and the bags faded through the mid-2000s. The rehabilitation came from skaters and from Supreme, which had made them from early in its history, and then from the runways: in July 2018 The Boston Globe reported that Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton were selling them for up to $1,500, worn by Kim Kardashian and Rihanna, and Vogue conceded that "the fanny pack has been vindicated." The new ones are usually worn across the chest, which is how you can tell they are not the old ones.