Hermes In the Loop 18 Bag Handmade In Taurillon Clemence Leather Silver Hardware N5 Cassis

Cassis is the colour of blackcurrant cordial held against a window: a deep purple with red in its heart, dark enough to behave at a dinner table and alive enough to be noticed under lamplight. It is a commitment colour, and this In the Loop 18 is the lightest way I know to make it. Nobody has ever called it a boring choice.

The format helps. Eighteen centimetres side to side, just under twenty with the loop, twelve deep; the soft pebbled shell of Taurillon Clemence keeps the purple from looking lacquered, and the silver hardware reads cool against it, almost confectionery. Indoors the bag passes for near-black until someone bends closer; in full sun the red undercurrent comes up and it looks like wine in a glass.

For an evening it carries a phone, keys, a cardholder and a lipstick, and still has room for sunglasses when the sun sets late. The loop handle makes it an easy bag to hold in one hand with a glass in the other, which is the real test of an evening bag. It has passed that test at more dinners than I should admit.

The one honest limitation: Cassis is dark enough that in poor light it can be mistaken for black, and some people find that the purple only shows in daylight, at which point it is unmistakably purple. Decide whether you want that surprise or not; the leather will not change its mind.