Melanie Paris Red Patchwork Wallet

A front that reads like a collage

Nothing on the front of this wallet is cut from a single piece. Four panels meet on slanted seams, and the stitching is left visible, so you can follow exactly where one fabric stops and the next one starts. A smooth plain red runs along the top edge and comes back across the bottom left. An open weave in red and black sits in the middle, loose enough to show its square grid. A flecked bouclé in grey, red and black fills the left-hand side. Three of the four stay inside the same family of reds, which is what stops the collage from turning noisy.

Black, ivory and a line of pale petals

Look to the right and the pattern switches language altogether. Ivory diamonds in a golden outline alternate with narrow white ladder stripes, and lower down a row of cream petals sits on red. That right-hand panel is the only place where black carries any real weight, and it is where the eye goes first whenever you pick the wallet up.

A zip-top wallet you can open one-handed

Two zips do the work here. One runs the full length of the top edge; the second is set at an angle across the front, following the line of the seams instead of cutting across them. Each slider carries a red pull tab held by a single rivet, and both the sliders and the rivets are finished in dark metal that picks up the black of the woven band. At 16 x 9 cm the wallet closes flat against the wall of a bag rather than sitting as a lump at the bottom. If that kind of opening suits the way you carry things, there are other wallets built around a zip to compare.

What you can see on it

Who this one suits

A red wallet is easy to find again, and that is half the argument: it shows up straight away at the bottom of a dark tote instead of hiding against the lining. The reds used here are warm rather than bright, so they sit happily next to black, charcoal or camel, and the ivory band is what lifts them. If you would rather keep coins somewhere else, a purse that only holds change fits beside it without doubling up.