Hermes Kelly 25 Bag Handmade In Epsom Calfskin Leather Silver Hardware 7P Blue Presse

Name a blue after printer’s ink and you set expectations. Blue Presse is exactly that: a saturated, slightly inky mid-blue with no grey in it at all. On the Kelly 25 in Epsom it looks like something a magazine editor would have carried in 1975, which I mean as the warmest possible compliment.

Epsom’s embossed grain gives the color a matte, paper-like surface; sunlight does not bounce off the bag, it soaks in. The coolness of the silver hardware sits perfectly inside that mood. This is a bag with no gold in its vocabulary, deliberately.

I pack mine like a daily planner: phone, cardholder, keys, a fountain pen, a small notebook that only just fits the 25 x 17 x 7 cm proportions if it is soft-bound, lipstick. Anything rectangular and rigid beyond a certain size will announce itself, so soft covers win in this bag.

Durability? Epsom takes a beating gracefully. A scuff is a small mark, not a wound, and the structure outlasts laziness with things inside.

An honest caveat: this blue is strong enough that it becomes the loudest thing in a muted outfit, and it does not always negotiate with other blues. Against navy it can look close but not close enough, an awkward room to be in. I wear it against grey, black and white instead, where it behaves like an accent that knows its role.