Saturday, November 7, 2009

Number One: The Teeny Wristlet

Our cell phones, smartphones, and PDAs have become indispensible in this life. In order to Google the right answer to a bar argument, or to call your boss to let him know you won't be coming in while you're sifting through the chaff to find the treasures in an Express box sale, or to update your Facebook status in the backseat of a car, we need our phones to be available to us at all times.

Unfortunately, most of the belt clips, pouches, and other accessories do not work for a female. They were mostly made for men, who are generally rather straight. For a curved body, a belt clip is a teeny nightmare. Try to find the right place on your pants to put a clip with a phone on it. I dare you. In my experience, they either dig into the curves, leaving large angry red marks, wobble precariously as my hips swing into a walk, interfere with the line of my shirt, or fall right off. Useless. The alternative is to stick the phone into the yawning chasm of my gigantic purse, and hope that I can hear it, feel it, or find it when an important call or text comes through. This has failed me more times than I can count.

After years of searching, both for a solution and for my phone amid my wallet, keys, sunglasses, cat toys (they put them in there, I have nothing to do with it) and cosmetics, I finally found it. Use a certifiably teeny wristlet (4" by 6" or smaller) and attach it to your pants. If you're wearing a dress, or an outfit without a waistband or belt, you can use a longer chain, and use it as a very tiny cell phone shoulder bag.

Wristlets are cuter than most cell phone accessories (generally made from clunky black plastic or black leather), widely available at all price points (the adorable pewter and metallic purple wristlet with a wee pocket that I'm currently using was $6.99 at Target), and make much more sense than a bulky, hard-to-release belt clip. They fall below the waistline, and don't interfere with your clothing, and you can easily coordinate them with your outfits. Also, a teeny wristlet doubles nicely as an evening or night-out bag, where you don't feel like toting around all of your worldly possessions. For the craftier among us, they're also relatively easy to whip together in an afternoon, depending on how you construct them.

Where to find:

For the bargain: Target, Old Navy, discount stores
For the luxe: Coach, Dooney and Bourke, Louis Vuitton

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