Melanie Paris Elegant Brown Wallet

A brown wallet with the zip closing three sides

Follow the edges and you can see exactly where the zip starts and stops. The teeth run the full length of the top edge and down both short sides. The long bottom edge has none: it is a plain folded edge, topstitched in matching thread, and it is the hinge the two halves pivot on. Three closed sides out of four, then, rather than a zip travelling all the way round.

Where the slider parks

Shut the wallet and the slider settles into the bottom left corner, its pull a small dark metal tab against the brown. It is the only piece of hardware on this face, and it sits flush with the stitched seam rather than standing proud of it.

The taupe glitter tab down the front

The front is otherwise plain, which is what makes the tab read so clearly. It is cut from a pale taupe material with a fine glittered surface, outlined all round in a near-black trim, and set just right of centre. A twisted cord in the same taupe runs down its middle, stitched in place along the whole length. Two thirds of the way down, a narrow keeper in the same material crosses it, like a buckle keeper with no buckle to hold. The lower end finishes in a rounded tongue; the upper end disappears under the top seam.

Grained finish and a 19x11x2.5cm footprint

The brown is not flat. The grain catches the light unevenly, a little paler across the middle of each panel, deeper towards the stitched edges, so the colour shifts as the wallet turns in your hand. At 19x11x2.5cm this is a long format, wide enough for notes to lie unfolded. Set it next to the other long and compact shapes in the wallet range and the difference in footprint shows at once.

Looking after the tab

The part worth protecting is the tab. Its glittered surface and the dark trim around it sit a fraction above the panel, so they are the first things to meet keys or another zip in a crowded bag. Give the wallet a pocket of its own, and wipe the brown panels with a barely damp cloth whenever they look dull. If you would rather keep coins separate, there is a small zipped coin purse to carry alongside.