Melanie Paris Wallet Camel Openwork Pattern

A zip-around camel wallet with a cut-out front panel

Zip-around wallets tend to be plain, and this one is not. The cut-out band covers most of the front face: rosettes, teardrops and tiny triangles punched straight through the camel surface, with a pale layer behind them doing the work that a printed motif would normally do. The grain stays visible around the panel, and a single line of stitching runs along the base. Have a look at what else Mélanie Paris makes if the label is new to you.

Open it flat: cards, notes, coins

Undo the zip and the wallet lies flat on a table. The middle is taken up by a zipped pocket, so coins stay sealed off from the paper on either side. The facing panel is left completely empty, which is where notes and receipts end up. Only then do you reach the card side: a clear window for the one you show most often, a row of slanted slots beneath it, and a snap flap that folds the whole lot shut.

A patterned lining behind a plain back

The lining is the part only you ever see. A geometric chain print in orange, cream and dark brown covers the gusset and sits behind the card window, so the pattern shows every time the wallet opens. The back face, by contrast, carries no cut-outs at all and reads as an ordinary plain wallet from behind. Plainer finishes are grouped in the full women's wallet section.

How big is it, and what shuts it?

Everyday care for the cut-out panel

Almost nothing here asks anything of you. The punched section is the exception: every opening is a small trap for dust, and a dry cloth drawn across the panel clears it in seconds. Do that occasionally and the camel tone stays even, which is about the extent of it.