Hermes In the Loop 18 Bag Handmade In Taurillon Clemence Leather Gold Hardware Q1 Sauge

Sauge is the green of the herb, not the hedge: a grey-muted sage with a soft, almost powdery finish, and on the In the Loop 18 it is the most restful colour in the whole family. It is also the one I reach for on days I want to look like I have a garden, which I do not. It is the colour equivalent of a deep breath.

Eighteen centimetres across, a touch under twenty with the loop handle, twelve at the base, the bag is a soft bucket in pebbled, spongy Taurillon Clemence. Gold hardware is the right choice against sage; it warms the herbaceous grey-green into something more like tea than salad. The leather settles against the body like a folded jumper.

In use it is a weekend and creative-work bag: a notebook, a pencil case, a phone, keys and a small wallet, and it looks right on a wooden table or a linen armchair. With olive, khaki, cream and every shade of denim it is instantly at home; it struggles, mildly, next to cobalt blue. Nobody has ever called it a loud bag, including me.

The one caution is light. In warm bulbs the sage loses its grey and can read slightly dusty, less fresh than it does outdoors. Mine lives near a window and is used outdoors as much as possible, which is true of the best greens generally. A small rule; a good bag.