Hermes Kelly Mini 2 19CM Bag Handmade In Bright Faced Alligator Leather from Mississippi Gold Hardware 6Q Vert Emeraude

Vert Emeraude needed daylight before I trusted it. Indoors, the green sits dark and almost serious, like the colour of a pine forest at dusk; in sun, the bright-faced alligator opens up into a true emerald and the gold hardware finally makes sense.

The scales do the work here. On a glossy exotic, deep green becomes three or four greens at once — brighter along the flap, near-black in the folds — so the bag never looks like one flat block of colour. That is also why I would not put this piece in a wardrobe of neutrals and expect it to behave.

It is the 19 x 12 x 5.5 cm Kelly, so the contents are a phone, a cardholder, keys and a lipstick. I take it to dinners and to evening events, where it reads as jewellery that happens to carry things.

My honest warning is that Vert Emeraude is a bag you plan outfits around. It is not the piece you grab half-asleep on the way out; it wants black, navy, cream or a plain coat, and it will punish a busy print.

Carried with intention, though, it is the most striking thing I have owned at this size — and the alligator keeps the colour rich for years if you keep it dry and wiped. I wear it perhaps twice a month, and each time it earns the planning it asked for.