Hermes Constance Slim Wallet Handmade In Epsom Calfskin Leather Silver Hardware 37 Gold

This one lives inside a canvas tote for most of the week, which is a different life from its strap-wearing siblings and a good test of how the Constance Slim behaves as a plain wallet. The answer: very well, with one caveat about hardware.

Same measurements as the rest, twelve point four by ten point two by three centimetres, with the 120 cm strap coiled into a pocket for most of its life rather than worn. Camel Epsom with silver fittings is the cooler reading of colour thirty-seven: less golden in artificial light, more stone, and unusually good against grey.

Laid flat in a bag, it takes cards, notes, a loyalty card or two and a spare key without bulging, and the pressed grain means whatever else is rattling around the tote does it no harm. Epsom is not a leather that dents easily, and a year of commuting has left the surface even.

Now the caveat: polished hardware in a crowded bag picks up hairline scuffs from keys and coins, and my silver clasp has the faintest spidering already. It shows only in raking light, but if a mark-free clasp matters more than convenience, wear this on its own with the strap and keep the bag for other things.

As a wallet it is one of the most satisfying I own; as a little handbag, the same object is even better. It is the one wallet I would happily buy twice – once for bag days, and once for the strap-and-clasp evenings.