Hermes Calvi Duo Compact Card Holder Handmade In Epsom Calfskin Leather Silver Hardware 7N Celeste

Celeste is the colour of a clear morning sky, and on Epsom calfskin it stays exactly that: cheerful, light and surprisingly easy to pair. I expected a blue this pale to be delicate in practice. Instead it has become the card holder I hand to anyone who says wallets are boring. It does that with colour rather than logos, and that is rarer than it should be.

The Calvi Duo is 7 by 10 by 2 cm, a compact shape with two compartments, so cards can be sorted rather than stacked, with a slim middle for a note or a receipt. Silver hardware keeps it cool and clean. It fits an inside coat pocket, a small crossbody, or the back pocket of jeans without flexing out of shape.

Epsom is why that last point holds. The pressed grain is stiff, dense and scratch resistant, so the pale blue does not collect the grey smudges that lighter leathers pick up, and the wallet keeps its crisp edges through constant use. The limit is firmness: this will never soften into a glove-like, slouchy thing, and overstuffing it stresses the fold at the spine. Treat it as a precise object and it stays precise for years.

With navy, white, grey or camel it looks like a deliberate choice. With everything else, it looks like a small holiday you can keep in your pocket. Two years in, the blue has not faded a shade.