Melanie Paris gray patchwork handbag

Where each panel sits on this gray patchwork handbag

Nothing on this bag is printed. The front has been cut into panels and every one of them was given a different surface, which is why the shape reads almost plain in a photograph and quite busy in the hand. Half the front is left bare on purpose, so the assembled half is not fighting for room. The other panelled fronts on the same shelf take the same idea somewhere else.

Reading the front from the outside in

The panels are not the same size and were never meant to be:

• washed plain canvas, uneven in tone, running right round the body
• a pale flecked weave, the single bright note in the whole arrangement
• a close-grained patch in a slightly warmer gray
• vertical braiding, the only piece with any real depth to it

Handle, strap and the pocket at the back

Two buckles on the sides do most of the work: take them in and the bag stays at the elbow, let them out and it goes over the shoulder. When both hands are needed, the removable strap clips onto the metal rings, and it coils away inside for the rest of the day. The canvas carries no stiffening at all, which is the whole reason it folds in on itself once you set it down and stands back up the moment somebody lifts it.

What the back panel is hiding

A zip pocket runs flat across the back panel, level with your hand, and it is the only thing interrupting an otherwise blank face. Cards and keys belong there rather than at the bottom of the bag. Deeper in, the black lining stops the base vanishing into shadow; one large compartment does most of the carrying, while the narrower ones down either side keep everything else from sliding into a heap. At 36x26cm this is a day bag rather than a tote, and it behaves like one. If you have not settled on a shape yet, look through the shapes filed one level up.