These all-in-one styles are gaining favor, but most traditionalists insist on separating the clip and credit cards in different pockets. ''Instead of loading down your back pocket with an overstuffed wallet - tempting thieves,'' the catalogue copy reads, ''lighten up with our innovative Deep Pocket Safety Wallet.'' The Sharper Image advertises a similar design, a slim card holder with a Velcro money clip attached, in grained leather ($39.95) or mock crocodile ($44.95). ''Golfers wanted a money clip attached to a gusseted credit-card case with room for just two or three cards.'' ''It started as a golfer's wallet, because it's lightweight and fits in their front pocket,'' Mr. This model, which retails for $18 to $20 at Lord & Taylor, Stern's and Macy's, is marketed as a Front Pocket Wallet, and according to Jim Cullen, an account representative at Fossil Inc., a maker of hip sunglasses, watches, belts and other accessories, it is by far the company's hottest selling item this year, now accounting for 25 percent of Fossil's total sales. ''My old wallet just took up too much space,'' he said. A few months back, I spotted my friend Adam Wiener, an executive producer at CBS New Media, pulling out a brown leather credit-card holder, made by Fossil, with a brass clip attached to the front. For my ID and credit cards, I bought myself the necessary companion, a slim gray leather card holder, anchored with a single screw, which allows me to fan my plastic out like playing cards.īut recently, I've noticed more and more men doing away with the conventional wallet, replacing it with a money clip and a slim-line credit-card case. Mine is gold-plated, hinged, with a little snapping-turtle action, and engraved with my initials. I'd never really paid attention to money clips before, but now I can't imagine the disordered state of affairs without one. My wife, annoyed to catch me leaving crumpled bills behind in taxicabs, bought me a money clip as a birthday gift.

There wasn't any space inside for cash, and I'd taken to shoving my bills haphazardly into various pants pockets. It had become so fat and heavy, in fact, that when jammed into my back pocket, I could no longer sit down without listing to the left. I was glad to get rid of the wallet, since it had long stopped functioning as a billfold and become a repository for bank deposit slips, bent business cards, Post-it notes and other things too important to throw out but not important enough to deal with promptly. Not long ago, I tossed my wallet into the trash and began carrying my cash in an old-fashioned money clip. ''Who do you think you are - Damon Runyon?'' ''YOU carry a money clip?'' my friend asked, staring at me as we split the check after a recent dinner.

Barneys bifold moneyclip