Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: How to switch to holiday mode? Easy, get a bag big enough for a book and a beach towel

Time to sign out of your Work Bag, sling a straw basket bag over your shoulder and feel your pulse slow down

Is there any point putting an out of office on your emails when you go on holiday any more? “I won’t have access to emails.” Yeah, right. Sorry, you aren’t fooling anyone: no one goes on holiday without their phone in 2025. Your office know perfectly well that if you don’t answer emails, they can still reach you by text or direct message. Even, theoretically, by actually calling you, although obviously that won’t happen because that’s another thing that no one does in 2025. Tweak your out of office message as much as you like – you might as well stick your fingers in your ears.

No, the best way to set your brain to holiday mode is by signing out of your Work Bag. Swapping the bag you take on your daily commute for a free-and-easy alternative is more effective as a psychological gear change than logging out of your emails. In day-to-day life, I change handbags as rarely as possible, the potential for leaving keys in an inside pocket and getting locked out being just too real. But when you get home after work and you aren’t going back for a week or two, there is something very pleasing about marking that moment by throwing away leaky pens, marvelling at how you managed to accumulate 14 hairbands, and then shaking the bag over the bin and feeling disproportionately thrilled when a pound coin falls out. Stashing the bag – with your office pass inside – is very out of sight and out of mind.