Hermes Picotin Lock 22 CM Bag Handmade In Taurillon Clemence Leather Silver Hardware 3i Vert Criquet

Vert Criquet cannot quite make up its mind, in the best way: grass green in sunshine, a softer olive under cover, somewhere in between by the window of a train. Few colors shift as pleasantly as this one does across a day. I have carried it with a khaki trench and a black knit, and it behaved like a different green in each, which is rare at this level of saturation.

The medium Picotin holds a phone, card holder, keys, sunglasses and a slim notebook. Clemence is thick and pebbled, and in this dye the leather looks faintly mineral, like the color was pulled out of the hide rather than painted on. Unlined, it is light enough to forget you are carrying it, and soft enough to flatten against your side when the subway is crowded.

Silver fittings keep the green cool rather than earthy; the lock rests on its leather tab and the handles sit upright when the bag is set down. This is a color that looks best with natural fabrics, which is not a rule, only a pattern I have noticed over a summer of carrying it.

The shift between grass and olive is both the charm and the catch. Against black it reads bolder than expected; against khaki it can nearly disappear. Try it with your usual neutrals before deciding what it is, because it will be a different green in every one of them.