[unpaid/affiliate] The most useful accessory I’ve ever found – a crossbody bag for your phone. I’ve ordered a couple already as gifts and I bought myself an Accessorize one as a ‘practice’ to see if I could get along with it before (maybe) going a bit more luxy. I mean, Christmas is coming etc ;-). Phone bags are currently selling like hot cakes – I was looking for one for Max at the weekend in actual real shops rather than on-line and a Uniqlo one I liked the look of had already sold out. They had none at Zara stores so I had to order on-line in the end. Phone bags are great for wearing under your coat – I never keep all my essential items in one place so my keys are in my coat pocket, my bank cards are in my jeans pocket, my phone is in my tote bag … if I was in an accident I’d be like a pinata. It’s my phone I worry about the most though – my whole life is on it whereas the other items feel more easily replaceable. The first image is from John Lewis HERE.

With this style of phone bag, you wear it as a cross body and it is completely unnoticeable under a coat unless you want it to be, so one moment it’s a secret item and the moment you take your coat off, it’s a fashion item. This one is £29 at John Lewis (who have a great selection) HERE.

This is a bit more fancy from M&S – it’s faux leather, comes in three shades: black, red and pink and due to the flexibility of the design, you’ll get your lipstick and credit card in there too. It’s £12.50 HERE.

This one is from Accessorize in their vegan range. On the back it has slots for your travel card or credit cards and a zip up wallet in between. At £15, I think this is a very good buy and the one I have is similar but in a black moc-crock. It’s HERE.

Uniqlo (having sold out of their other options) has this fluffy version that’s a little bit bigger so you can carry more about if you like (a fold up shopping bag just in case?). It’s £19.90 HERE in three shades – if you have teen gifts to buy, step right in!  And also, going absolutely viral on TikTok is the below bag:

It looks small, right? It’s like a Tardis – I saw my friend Camilla pull a bottle of wine out of hers (neck slightly out of one end although if you have a bottle that’s rounded the whole lot goes in..) and immediately bought two!

(Lucy went straight to the shop and bought herself one as well.) Actually, one of them is perhaps for my mum – anyone elderly or with mobility issues who needs their hands free for sticks and so on – a godsend. It’s £14.90 in four colours (yes, including black!) HERE.

If you want to go super lux (secretly I do) these are the Anya Hindmarch versions at £295 each HERE. They have everything –  a zipped compartment, a pocket for cards and a loop for charms. I mean…

So you can see that you can go as lux, budget, plain or fancy as you like – I love mine for when I don’t want to carry much about with me on walks or even on a night out where I can just rest it by my plate and it takes up no room at all.

Update: I bought the Anya.