Hermes Picotin Lock 18 CM Bag Handmade In Taurillon Clemence Leather Silver Hardware U4 Vert Vertigo

I resisted Vert Vertigo for a season because a bright green felt like a commitment. I was wrong, and I now think of it as the colour that makes every neutral I own look deliberate – white jeans, black knitwear, camel coats, all instantly more interesting. It is the opposite of a wallflower: it introduces you to strangers.

Eighteen centimetres each way on the face, thirteen deep: the compact bucket, made in Clemence, whose pebbled surface keeps the saturated green from looking flat. The silver hardware reads crisp and modern against it, and the leather slouches into shape within a week of carries.

What it carries: a phone, keys, a small coin pouch and a hair tie, which is honestly all I need on the days I choose it. The open mouth makes it a magician’s bag for short errands, and because the leather is unlined, the interior is fully visible, so nothing ever hides at the bottom.

The one thing to know is that vivid greens are unforgiving company: next to reds and oranges this bag can look like a clash, not a colour story. Keep it among whites, blues and naturals and it behaves impeccably – and it is the bag strangers ask about most.

If you are on the fence about green, this is the one I hand people first. Nobody who has borrowed mine has returned it without a comment, and the comment is usually envy. Buy it for summer; wear it all year.