Hermes Picotin Lock 18 CM Bag Handmade In Taurillon Clemence Leather Silver Hardware 60 Vert Cypress

Dark green has a quiet advantage: it works as a neutral with camel, rust and navy, but it never disappears into a crowd the way black does. Vert Cypress is a deep evergreen – think pine and wet moss – and it is the most underrated colour in the small Picotin range. It is the bag that makes strangers lean closer and ask what the colour is called.

Eighteen centimetres tall, as wide, thirteen deep, in pebbled Taurillon Clemence with grain loose and giving. The silver fittings make a clean counterpoint to the forest tone, and the slack hide gives the bucket its soft fall. Because the green is dark enough to absorb shadows, the bag photographs almost black – expect it to look deeper in person.

Phone, wallet, keys and earbuds ride with me, packed loose so the bag stays airy. The unlined interior shows the leather’s raw side, which in this colour is a deep matte green – a detail for the people who notice such things. In rain it shrugs, in sun it holds; of all the colours I have carried, this one has needed the least forgiveness.

If there is a criticism, it is colour discipline: Vert Cypress is so dark that pairing it with black or charcoal risks a muddy look, and it shines best against cream, camel, denim and tobacco. Give it those companions and the bag quietly earns its keep all year round.