Hermes Jypsiere Mini 23 Bag Handmade In Evercolor Calfskin Leather Gold Hardware 9R Lime

There is a florist near my flat whose window stops me almost every week, and the bunch I keep looking at is the lime-green one that seems faintly radioactive in the right light. The Jypsiere Mini in 9R Lime, with its gold hardware, is that bunch in bag form. It is not a colour you wear quietly, and it is not meant to be.

Mechanically it is the messenger I know well: a broad flap over a slim body twenty-three centimetres wide and seventeen tall, no more than five deep, with a strap that runs crossbody and a flap that closes on a turn-lock. Inside, a phone, a cardholder, house keys and a lipstick fit with a centimetre or two to spare; on weekends I often drop the cardholder and carry just phone, keys and a folded note.

Evercolor calfskin is what makes the colour work. Its grain is fine and even, dyed through, so the lime reads saturated rather than chalky, and the smooth surface shrugs off the dust of a day outdoors. Gold hardware against yellow-green sounds loud; in person it is a warm, slightly retro pairing that looks deliberate with denim, white or grey.

My honest reservation: this is not a bag for a grey meeting room. It announces itself from the other side of the table, and the bright finish shows fingerprints on the flap after a coffee run. I keep a cloth in my desk drawer and wear it on Fridays. It has never failed to improve a Friday.