Hermes Picotin Lock 18 CM Bag Handmade In Taurillon Clemence Leather Sliver Hardware 08 Blue Pale

Blue Pale is what happens when you take a strong blue and leave it in the sun until it forgets to shout. It is a pastel with a cool, slightly powdery edge — the colour of a lip of glacier at the end of summer — and it flatters linen, white cotton and weathered denim in equal measure.

The bag carrying it is the Picotin Lock 18 in Taurillon Clemence, which means soft pebbled sides, a rolled handle and the small lock at the top where the straps cross. A little shorter than a paperback stood upright, it sits nicely under the arm and against the body rather than swinging away from it. Silver hardware keeps the palette icy and deliberate.

I took mine on a coastal weekend and it held more than expected: phone, cardholder, keys, a stick of sunscreen and a pair of sunglasses folded on top. The trick with a bucket this size is layering tall things vertically and filling the corners with small ones.

In the wardrobe it asks for white, stone and pale denim, and gives back a freshness that deeper blues cannot fake. Packed flat in transit, it arrives with barely a crease to steam out.

My honest reservation is the obvious one. This is a light, soft leather, and the two together mean you should expect the occasional mark; it wipes clean easily enough if you deal with it in the same day. Treat it like a summer bag and let it rest in winter, and it will stay this colour for a long time.