Emmy Rossum designs practical bag

Emmy Rossum designed her new bag for the "working woman".

The actress has teamed up with Elie Tahari to create her own handbag and says when she was coming up ideas she was keen for it be practical enough to be used every day.

She said: "I thought a lot about the kind of bag I wanted: versatile, worn by the working woman in any season. It was important that it had compartments in the sides, because I hate those big bags where your iPod cord gets mixed in with your lip gloss."

Emmy says she wanted to have a big part in the design process because it's something that's always appealed to her.

She told WWD: "I grew up singing in choirs at the Met Opera. When a new director would come in and have a new production. We got to work with our costumer to pick out our fabrics. It was a creative process behind the scenes, it was very exciting, and I always felt at home there. So being part of that creative process touching the leathers, picking the fabrics, thinking 'What would I really want to wear?' It was great."

The result of Emmy and Elie's work is a leather 'Emmy' bucket bag with cotton canvas interior, available in four sizes, in tan, black, white, mushroom, yellow and metallic.

Elie admits he was very impressed with the brunette beauty's working, saying: "Besides it being fun, I think that she created a beautiful bag, it's very interesting, very exciting. I think the fact that she's involved, it's good for our image as a company and it was just a good experience."

The bag is available from March and a portion of all proceeds will go to the charity Safe Horizon.