The first thing we put away last March were bags. Handbags, shoulder bags, top-handle bags, whatever your preferred bag happened to be, suddenly you had no use for it.
Heels fell out of favour, but handbags crashed and burned, and some of us who generally like a backpack thought they might never return.
We were wrong. It turns out bags give women pleasure, even if they’re impractical, and we hadn’t fully appreciated the many benefits of the new kid on the block — the crossbody bag (CBB). Whether it’s purse-sized and hanging on a chain or bigger with a top handle and long strap, the CBB has elbowed every other bag out of the frame and now looks like the smart buy for summer.
It has several things going for it. For a start it’s 100 per cent hands-free, unlike a shoulder bag or a tote which requires hitching up or gripping under your arm. This makes it ideally suited to our post-corona world where we all want to be less encumbered and more self-contained. Better still, a crossbody bag can make an outfit — and we’re not just talking about adding the finishing flourish.
