You know how you used to pack your lunch box every day, emblazoned with your favorite action figure, Little Pony, or Sailor Moon character? Maybe you picked one out during back-to-school shopping every year, and you carried it with pride as it kept your PB&J safe and sound? And then you grew up, and that pure beautiful sort of joy left your life? And now sometimes you eat sad $12 salads out of the plastic containers they came in because who has time to pack lunch with all of these emails coming in?
Well, no more. It's time to go back to a place of lunchtime joy, of carrying your (thoughtfully prepared) lunch in something a little more elegant than a wrinkly plastic bag. We've rounded up some of the best lunch sacks and bento boxes on the market. They're functional and stylish, too, because everyone secretly wants to be the coolest kid in the cafeteria.
These look like a cross between 2016 Scandinavian chic and Little House on the Prairie quaint. And bonus: you can cook and heat food in them—on the stovetop—which means one less pot for you to clean.
As with winter clothes, so too with lunch: Success is all about layering. These tiffins—traditionally used to carry lunch in India and other South Asian countries—stack together to keep your sandwich and salad separate.
The Takenaka bento boxes—which come in a rainbow of colors and a variety of models—perfectly straddle modern design and the classic logic of bento boxes. Maybe you should get a different color for every day of the week.
Waxed canvas in (almost) every color under the sun. Photo: Courtesy of Artifact Bags
This bag is modeled off of roll-top paper lunch bags, but significantly more durable—and much more stylish. It also has a lifetime warranty, so you can carry it with you all the way to the retirement home.
Here's your waxed canvas budget option, with a handy little buckle to make sure your kale salad doesn't tumble out while you're commuting. Because how embarrassing would that be?
This is the trapper keeper of lunch boxes: it comes apart into three compartments, and holds a fork, knife, and spoon. It might make you feel like you're on a really trendy spaceship.
The shoulder strap here will make your life a whole lot easier if your work tote is already too full of a laptop, gym clothes, and the YA novel you've been discreetly reading on the subway. (We won't tell.)
Yes, this is extremely cool-looking and retro and fun, and likely to make you a few new friends in the cafeteria. But it's also super-practical: It breaks down into two levels and four compartments, and comes with a fork and knife.
[#### Now it's time to fill that bento box...
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