Fashion | The IT Bag of the Summer

I love a great handbag as much as the next girl and the straw/woven tote has taken the season by storm. A handbag, along with shoes, is an item that I will happily splash the cash on with it being an investment however a woven bag isn't what I'm going to use everyday for work, it a bag best suited to weekend adventures and holidays.

Before my trip to Lanzarote I decided I needed to invest in the bag of the season and it turned out to be the perfect holiday accompaniment. It came with me to the beach, the pool and was my hand luggage for the flight and fitted more than I could ever need and all for less than £60. What's more, I got a custom-made and personalised palm leaf bag exactly as I imagined which is a bargain for the price.

Now where can I get one I hear you ask, well I got my bag from Guided Tor and they are amazingly helpful with helping you create your design. You can customise the lettering, stripes, colours and pom pom styles to make the woven bag your heart desires. Guided Tor offer three size options and I went large because I knew I'd need to fit a towel, some water, my camera, kindle and other beach essentials in it and it seems to be a Mary Poppins bag. As my carry on I had inside; Kindle, Purse, Camera, Additional Camera Lens, Phone, Keys, Headphones, Bottle of Water, 4 x pairs of sunglasses (oops), 1 pair of glasses, 2 epi-pens, clear bag of plane beauty essentials, scarf, jumper and my travel documents, plus it still had room to spare.

Below are some of my favourite picks from the high street but if you do fancy a personalised bag of the season then I really would recommend contacting Guided Tor. I contacted them via their Instagram, which is also really inspiring for your designs, to see if they could deliver the bag in time for my holiday and they were incredibly helpful and it arrived 2 days before I left for the airport which really got me in the holiday mood. The bags are handmade in Morocco and then hand decorated in London. It's now taking all my will power not to get the small version with pink detail.