Multicolored handbag Donna Aléssia Urban Style

What does a taupe-and-black handbag with a turn-lock actually suit?

The days when one bag has to go from a desk to a supermarket without being thought about again. The taupe flap takes up most of the front, so that is the colour anyone notices first; the black body sits underneath and takes the knocks. Donna Aléssia has kept the outline plain and let the metalwork carry the character.

Seen straight on, the front is symmetrical: one strap left, one strap right, the oval plate exactly between them. The row of round silver studs down each side gusset reads as a frame around that arrangement rather than as trim added at the end. The shoulder strap, silver as well, falls in a loop along the sides.

Two screws, one moving bar

The oval plate is fixed by two visible screws, one on either side, and nothing on it moves except the bar across the middle. That is the whole mechanism: a silver oval turn-lock that sits proud of the flap instead of hiding under it, so it stays part of the front rather than a detail you have to hunt for.

The straps, the buckles and the denim keepers

Two silver straps drop from the handle tabs, cross the edge of the flap and continue over the black body. Each passes through a silver pin buckle, then through a denim-blue keeper that picks up the colour of the handle. Two punched holes stay visible above each buckle, which is what makes them read as working straps rather than stitched-on decoration.

32 cm across, 11 cm deep

The denim-blue handle ends at each side in a silver tab folded around a rectangular metal ring. Held by that handle, the bag rides high, close to the hip; on the shoulder strap it drops lower and the weight spreads across the body instead. The figures below are here so you can put this one next to whatever else you are weighing up.

Depth is the figure that is easiest to skip over, and eleven centimetres of depth is generous for a bag of this width. Before deciding, it is worth scrolling through what else is lined up beside it, because height and handle drop change how a bag is used far more than width ever does.