Hermes Birkin 35 Bag Handmade In Togo Calfskin Leather Gold Hardware M8 Gris Asphaite

Gris Asphaite is named for asphalt, and the name is honest: it is a mid-to-dark grey with a cool slate cast, the colour of a wet road on a clear day. With gold hardware that coolness is interrupted warmly, and the result sits somewhere between work and weekend. It is my pick for anyone who wants a grey bag that does not disappear against a dark coat.

Practicality favours this tone strongly. Mid-greys are the least demanding colour family to own, showing neither the dust of black nor the handling marks of pale shades, and Togo’s pebbled grain adds its usual protection on top. Rain is not a worry with this one, and that alone earns it a place in a rotation for a changeable climate.

Inside the 35 there is room for a normal life: wallet, phone, keys, glasses, a compact, a notebook, a pouch of cables and a folded scarf, or a tablet if you keep the rest lean. The interior pockets are usefully positioned high enough that cards and travel passes do not end up buried under everything else.

The honest caveat is photographic: cool mid-greys can look almost blue in some light and almost brown in others, and they sometimes read as flat in pictures. In person there is more life in the surface than any photograph suggests, which is worth remembering if you are judging from a screen.