A crossbody bag is the hardest thing to buy online, because the difference between one you wear every day and one that lives in a drawer is about three centimetres. Here is how to work it out before it arrives rather than after.
Measure what you actually carry
Put your phone, your wallet, your keys and whatever else never leaves your side on a table and measure the pile. Most people find the phone is the constraint: a large phone in a case is around 16 × 8 cm, and a bag that cannot take it flat will never feel right no matter how good it looks.
Then decide which of two bags you are buying:
- The minimum. Phone, cards, keys, sunglasses. Nothing else fits and that is the point — it stays flat against you and you forget it is there. Our sling bags sit here: the Everyday Sling is 20.3 × 12.7 cm.
- The day bag. All of the above plus a small bottle, a paperback, a charger, a folded tote. Noticeably bigger, worn lower, and it swings when you walk. The crossbody bags in the range sit here.
Buying the day bag when you wanted the minimum is the more common mistake. A half-empty bag hangs badly.
Use the tape, not the photograph
A product photograph tells you nothing about scale — every bag on this site is shot to fill its frame, so a luggage tag and a duffle look the same size. Every listing that has a published measurement shows it on the product page and in the size guide, in centimetres and inches.
The useful trick: mark the width and height on a sheet of paper, cut it out, and hold it where you would wear the bag. Two minutes of that beats any amount of squinting at a picture.
Capacity in litres, where we have it
Some makers publish a capacity and some do not, so we print it only where it exists. It is worth knowing what the number means: the Roam Waist Pack is 1.4 litres, which sounds like nothing and is in fact a phone, a wallet, keys and a pair of sunglasses. Small-bag litres are not intuitive — if a figure is missing, the external measurements will tell you more anyway.
Strap length is the part nobody checks
Where a maker publishes strap or handle length, it is in the specification. An adjustable strap is the safer buy: worn across the chest a bag sits at the hip on most people, and pushed round to the back it needs a few more centimetres. If you wear a coat for half the year, buy for the coat.
If a number is missing
Seven of our lines have no published measurement, because the maker never released one and we would rather say so than invent it. Email support@modsession.com and we will measure the item before it ships. It is a better use of a day than a return.