This Phone Case Changed My Life

I was once a person who forgot my wallet at home all the time. Even if I asked myself, Phone? Keys? Wallet?, as I walked out the door, I'd get to the subway and realize I was missing something. Or, I'd leave my wallet in the bathroom of the R29 HQ for other staffers to find. (Seriously, Rachel? How embarrassing...) Or, I'd rush out to dinner with friends and they'd have to pay for me...again.

I did everything I could to remember my wallet: I experimented with different sizes (If your wallet is as big as a small dog, how could you still forget it?) and countless different tricks to forgo forgetting. But try as I did, I still ended up leaving that dang thing everywhere. It took a while for me to accept that this was my life: I was a wallet-forgetter.

But just as I had become content with my truth, I discovered the wallet phone case. I'll call a spade a spade: on aesthetics alone, the wallet phone case isn't the best-looking on the block. It's bulky, fairly ugly, and the wallet flap can sometimes get in the way and cover half of your face when you take a call.

Those qualms are fair, but like most essentials, this is about function over form. As someone who never loses or forgets my phone, this case whipped me into shape, forcing me to have my wallet on me at all times. (Disclaimer: If you lose your phone frequently, this is not the item for you...unless you never lose your wallet, in which case you might have the same miraculous results as I did).

As a fashion editor, though, aesthetics aren't irrelevant. It hit me that my saving grace might be considered pretty weird when I was out on a first date last year. While I don't dress to please others, nor pick my accessories with that mentality, when the guy I was with made a comment about how the case made me look like a 65-year-old, he wasn't wrong. I started thinking that I should maybe trade it in for something sleeker or better-looking. But as Drake once put it, nothing was the same. No other similar option on the market could do what my OG did.

So, as you can imagine, I was over the moon when I heard of Edward Field — the first brand I've ever seen that makes wallet phone cases that actually look good. By way of nice leather, great colorways, and a less-bulky design (instead of clipping your phone into the case, there are hundreds of mini suction cups that hold it in place), this was the first time I was entirely stoked about wallet phone cases. Edward Field figured out how to make these cases go from pure dad to giving off that cool dad vibe everyone now seems to be pining for.

Let the options ahead convince you that this isn't a total dud; it's actually awesome. Trust me when I say this case changed my life — and even if you're not one of those people who forgets their wallet at home, it might just do the same for you.