Hermes Kelly 2424 24/24 Bag 21CM Handmade In Evercolor and Swift Calfskin Leather Gold Hardware 73 Blue Saphir

Blue Saphir is a colour that fools you indoors. At my desk it reads nearly black, and then I step outside and it is unmistakably blue. The gold hardware warms it slightly, which keeps the whole bag from going cold and corporate.

The mini 2424 measures just past twenty centimetres across, built in Evercolor with Swift where the leather needs to relax. The flap sits flat whether the bag is full or almost empty, and the strap runs long enough to wear crossbody over a jacket. The turnlock is the only part that catches light, and it does so briefly, like a watch face under a cuff.

I carry it to dinner and on weekends: a phone, a cardholder, keys and one lipstick, and nothing more. That discipline is the point. The smaller the bag, the faster I stop pretending I need everything. The strap needed no fiddling; it arrived at the length I would have chosen myself.

So my honest note is about the size itself. If you are someone who wants a book or a water bottle with you, the mini 2424s are not that bag. What they are is the easiest thing I own to pick up on the way out of the door.

Deep sapphire has another virtue I did not expect: it hides the small marks of daily life almost as well as black does. It is also small enough to sit in a locked hotel drawer, which is where mine spends its holidays.