Beige and brown monogram rigid handbag

A rigid monogram handbag that keeps its shape

Set it down and nothing collapses. The body is a shallow trapeze, 34 cm wide and 12 cm deep, wider across the top than across the base, with a camel binding along the rim and a darker edge running round the panels. A gold plate stamped Gallantry sits high on the front, level with the big initials. To set that width against everything else in the range, the rest of the handbag shelf, letter prints included, makes the comparison quick.

Gallantry's own measurements

CR letters, printed twice over

Two scales of the same monogram share one panel. The small version repeats in tight rows across the coated canvas, cream on brown to the left and brown on cream to the right. The large version is drawn over the top of it, an initial tall enough to run from the binding almost down to the base, and it borrows whichever of the two tones the ground beneath it is not using. From a few steps away the eye picks up the large letterform first and only then notices the rows behind it.

Carried in the hand, or clipped across the body

Each handle sits in a camel tab held by a gold sleeve above and another below, and the drop between the tab and the top of the grip measures 17 cm. The camel strap unclips at both ends, its gold lobster clasps lifting straight off the side rings, which is what turns the same piece into a cross-body for the walk and back into a tote at the desk. For the opposite build, soft and open at the top, the roomier shoppers on the next shelf take over.

A pocket you only see from behind

The reverse face carries the same two-scale print, without the plate and without the hanging strips, and adds a full-width zipped pocket across the back with a small gold pull. It is the one place on the bag you can reach without opening anything, so a travel card or a phone tends to end up there. The base panel below it is camel, seamed along its length, with a gold metal foot at each of the four corners.

Keeping the pale camel pale

The trim is the lightest part of the bag and it is the part that shows wear first, so give the handles and the base a wipe with a barely damp cloth when they start to look dull. The printed canvas needs less attention. Stored upright on a shelf rather than at the bottom of a wardrobe, the base keeps its colour longer, and the gold chain is worth laying flat against the front so that it does not press into the panel beside it.