Meet The String Shopper, The £2.59 Bag Of The Moment

This is not a drill.

Published on19th July 2017 at 3.50pm

A disclaimer: you did not first spot the bag of the moment on the catwalk or swinging from the arms of fashion editors and It girls. No, you saw it way before that - in a fruit and veg shop most likely, or the supermarket.

Yes, you read that right. Picking up where Balenciaga's high-fashion take on Ikea's blue bags left off, the string shoppers more commonly used for toting groceries are seriously hot property this summer, favoured by style-savvy women who know that cotton netting exudes a carefree cool. Team with espadrilles and a polka dot shirtdress? Voila! That's a shortcut to some serious summer-in-the-South-of-France vibes.

Credit: Instagram.com/tifmys

If the words 'It bag' fill you with financial anxiety, fear not. Unlike the Balenciaga style, which weighed in at £1,600, the string shopper doesn't come with a prohibitive price tag. You can snap one up for a sweet £2.59 on Amazon. Should you feel like splurging, however, Maison Margiela's leather-detailed haute version will suffice, and there are dozens of colourful iterations in-between.

A word of warning: mind the gaps. Lip glosses and loose change run the risk of slipping through the net, so consider downsizing your contents or throwing those odds and ends in a pouch. And, of course, if you just wish to use it to carry your actual grocery shopping, we promise not to judge.

Shop our edit of string shoppers, below: