STATE's New Star Wars Backpacks Blend Fashion, Function, and the Force

Jacq Tatelman: Well, you captured the essence of our brand right there in that first question. We design all our bags with the intention of combining fashion, sophistication, and fun. We love to make the end user smile, be proud of their bag, and designing Star Wars was no exception to that. We had a great time conceptualizing these bags and how STATE would ultimately do Star Wars. First, we came up with the idea of creating each collection in friendships, since thats such a huge part of both of our brands. Each "friendship" is tied to each other by matching lining and the editorial patch as well as other small details like glow-in-the-dark labels or zipper pullers. We pulled fabrics from our library that really spoke to each classic character and we designed a custom knit fair isle to cover the front of some the bags. We felt like that was something no one had done before. Also, we didn't keep the focus to just the outside, since we're constantly talking about what's on the inside and how important it is for product and people to radiate from the inside out. Just like we do with the mainline STATE collection, we take such pride in the idea that we have taken a dinosaur product, the backpack, and given it personality and, of course, heart.

Jacq Tatelman: Yes! For some of the bags we wanted the design to be subtle but still speak to the Star Wars lover with the little things. No fan would ever walk past our Johnny bag that's covered in a custom fair isle with the Imperial crest fully repeated on it and not notice. While for others, like C-3PO, we thought about that woman or man who wants to represent that character and do so in good taste. So, instead of draping the bag in all gold we covered the top portion to represent his body or shell, but added the red and blue bottom strap sliders to represent his wires. We felt those details were beautiful and cool and whether you're a mega-fan or not, you really notice the bag.

See more of STATE's Star Wars collection in the gallery below!

Dan Brooks is Lucasfilm’s senior content writer and editor of the StarWars.com blog. He loves Star Wars, ELO, and the New York Rangers, Jets, and Yankees. Follow him on Twitter @dan_brooks where he rants about all these things.