The oh-so-frightening... fanny pack.

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw this charming yet terrifying tweet in mid-October:



How did I come to such a conclusion?

I was walking home for the day and thinking about going out skating -- since Karen and I are in roller derby training, I need to be out on my skates as often as possible. But, I said to myself, my skating gear doesn't have any pockets to hold my keys. My purse is an across-the-body strap (as I did ultimately find a new bag), which means it would swerve and bang around on my legs and hip while I skated; forget a traditional shoulder strap bag that would just fall off or need me to hold it to my body with my upper arm.

Thus, I needed an extra exterior pocket that would strap to my body without getting in the way of my motion or weighing me down too much. All it needs to hold would be my keys, my phone, and my ID/some cash.

Which means: yes, I needed a fanny pack.

Hilariously, I knew exactly where to purchase a fanny pack, which was to go directly to American Apparel. I bought the shiny denim fanny pack in black, as pictured here. It's not super-shiny, alas, but it does its job, which is to strap around my waist and hold my keys.

I decided to take a look and see what I could find on Etsy in terms of adorable fanny packs, but found the selection to be rather more sparse when searching through for "fanny pack". Turns out the term we're using these days is "hip pouch". I see what you did there!

- jennyndesign.etsy.com features the "Traveler" bag in various styles and fabrics, including houndstooth (yay, houndstooth!).
- maytreeark.etsy.com has a super-cute and streamlined pouch called the "Hipshack", in fabrics like pinstripe denim. Love it!
- I totally love the Fancypack by carrotcake.etsy.com. It's what Lady GaGa would wear, uh, every day, but especially when skating. They're seriously awesome and I totally want one.
- The ruffled waist bag from kinies.etsy.com is another sweet ruffly option. I have to admit, I also really like it as a bustle, a la Susie Bubble's "bum bag" post. (I'm not sure how comfortable it would be if I, you know, fell on it, but...)

Have you ever had the realization that you might have to sacrifice fashion for function? What did you end up doing? And -- do you think you would wear a fanny pack in public? Considering the cute ones I've found, I don't think it's such a bad thing after all!

images from twitter.com and store.americanapparel.net