Silver star wallet

A zip-around silver wallet with a glitter black star

The wallet is zipped along the top and down one side, so it opens flat in the hand and both halves come into view at once. The zip itself is gold, and hanging from the pull is a two-strand tassel, one strand silver, one black, held in a gold cap. Inside, the lining is black, with a main pocket down the middle and flat slots on either side.

Grained silver, and a star that takes up the front

The star is cut large and sits in black glitter against the grey-silver ground, close enough to the edges that it is the first thing you see. The grained synthetic finish keeps the metallic on the soft side, so the colour reads nearer to pewter than to chrome. Turn the wallet over and the back is plain: grain, stitching round the edge, nothing else.

At a glance

What it goes with

Silver is the quiet one in a winter palette: it sits under a grey wool coat without arguing with it, and the star is what catches the light. On size alone this one belongs with the pocket models rather than the larger flap-over wallets, so it is worth seeing the other compact wallet shapes side by side.

If you carry cards and loose change and little else, zip-up coin purses do the same job in less space.

Keeping fingerprints off the silver

Metallic surfaces show fingermarks quickly, and a soft cloth, barely damp, takes them straight off. Wipe the tassel separately, leave the gold cap alone, and never drag the zip shut on a full wallet: that is how the teeth give way.