Hermes Picotin Lock 18 CM Bag T7 Blue Hydra Handmade In Taurillon Clemence Leather Silver Hardware

Hydra sounds mythological, and the colour nearly lives up to it: clear, saturated and cool, somewhere between cobalt and swimming-pool blue. It is the shade that makes a white shirt look intentional and denim look tailor-made. In a sea of grey bags it is a flag.

Eighteen centimetres across its widest point, thirteen deep, with the soft Taurillon Clemence grain that creases agreeably at the wrist. Silver hardware keeps the blue cool and crisp; gold would have warmed it and changed its whole temperament.

Mine is a summer city bag: phone, cardholder, keys and a lip tint, with a thin silk scarf folded through a handle when the outfit is plain. It is also the bag I lend to friends who think they do not like blue – Hydra usually settles the argument.

The practical notes: saturated blues are hard to stain visibly, which is a genuine advantage, but this leather still dislikes getting soaked, and Clemence darkens briefly wherever water sits. One cloth, one minute, problem solved; otherwise the colour wears hard and stays true for years.

If your bag wardrobe is all safe colours, this is the one I would break it with: Hydra flatters pale skin, dark denim and everything in between, and it has never once felt like a costume. It is simply blue at its most confident. Carry it as the only colour on you and it still looks considered, which is a rare trick for a bright.