Celebrity Style Magazine: The Style Maven: Gentlemen, a word on the giving of bags

There is something most impressive about receiving a bag as a gift, particularly a leather one. (Although if it was a non-leather handbag by Stella McCartney I wouldn't be offended. You know, the one with the chain edging..?)

It's an impressive present because a bag is a tricky thing to buy for someone else. You have to be careful, you see, because these days handbags aren't simply vessels in which to haul your keys and screwed-up tissues.

No, the bag - be it clutch, frame, top-handle or across-the-body (and, believe me, it matters) - has become an extension of our very personalities, a bit like the daemons of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

This is possibly because of how much we have to pay for them. You give a little bit of your soul when you purchase a handbag at today's prices.

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So unless you have been told exactly which bag, in which colour and which texture, your loved one yearns for - nay, identifies with - a handbag is one big risky gift.

But this Christmas there may be a solution. I feel pretty sure that there is a style of bag you could give to the woman in your life without hearing the scandalised tones of Lady Bracknell in response ('a SATCHEL?').

It is the pouch. Like much else, the pouch is à la mode largely because a few seasons ago Phoebe Philo at Céline declared it to be.

Back in 2009 she presented minimalist envelope clutches for daytime, and this statement has continued to filter through so that right now a simple pocket of zipped leather, about the length of your forearm, is what the girl in the know is choosing to carry.

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It's the antithesis of the it-bag. You need to be in good squinting distance of a Smythson pouch, for example, to identify its beautiful gold stamped lettering. To distinguish between a pouch that cost £20 and one that cost £200 is hard.

And as long as there's room for a phone and keys, who needs a hulking great piece of luggage on their shoulder anyway? Even if your recipient just uses it for nipping out to the corner shop, my theory is she will be glad to be able to do it in such style.

From left: Leather, £69, by Reiss ( reiss.com ), Canvas, £18, by Alphabet Bags ( alphabetbags.com ), Leather, £595, by Smythson ( smythson.com )