Hermes Bearn Wallet With Gusset Handmade In Chèvre Calfskin Leather Silver Hardware 5p Pink

Chèvre gives this pink wallet a fine, almost papery grain that takes dye with unusual evenness – the colour is the same in the valleys as on the peaks. Five-p Pink is a soft petal tone rather than a candy one, and silver hardware stops it turning sweet. In a bag full of dark things, it is the item that makes me smile every time I pull it out.

Seventeen and a half centimetres across, nine tall, five deep with the gusset open. That is a full wallet: notes laid flat, cards in the slots, coins in the zip section, a couple of receipts – and it still closes without a fight. I have used it as my only wallet for months, including a trip where it lived in a jacket pocket instead of a handbag, and the chèvre has stayed light and flexible the whole time instead of stiffening at the fold.

An honest caveat: pale pinks show ink and grime along the outer edges, and chèvre, being goat leather, stains more readily than a coated calf. Never share a pocket with a pen. Wipe it weekly and it will age slowly and evenly.

What I love is the practicality hiding under the colour – it does everything a serious wallet does without ever announcing that it is being serious. That is a balance I have not found in many wallets.