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The noun 'must-have' is defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as:
Something that many people want to own.
Do you know any alternatives for expressing the same meaning? I would like to use it to make the writing a bit more elegant: 'must-have' sounds so cliché-ish.
I'm open to synonyms (Thesaurus had none) and phrases.
The more it leans to 'vital' to own instead of 'want' to own, the better.
A more proper word is essentials. Dictionary.com defines it as:
a basic, indispensable, or necessary element; chief point:
Concentrate on essentials rather than details.
Lexico says:
A thing that is absolutely necessary.
‘we only had the bare essentials in the way of equipment’
