It has to be said; I'm not usually one for Radley. Sure, their designs are easy on the eye, and there's nothing I dislike about them per se, but there's been nothing yet that has excited me. Until now!

I've been keeping my eye out for a medium sized, grey bag for several months now. I have plenty of small handbags, and a couple of large ones, but nothing in between. After not having a great deal of luck on the high street, I turned to higher-end designers brands to find what I was looking for. Yes, of course they work out much more expensive, but the mindset I'm going with is that once I find the bag, I want to be using it for years to come - so it has to be excellent quality, and made to last. The style also had to be right, so that I would still want to use it when I'm older and that it wouldn't look "out of date".

The problem that I've been facing, is that I will find a design that I really like and then realise that it has gold hardware. I hate that! Surely the logical thing to do would be to use silver hardware? Apparently not. Also, I've struggled to find the right shade of grey (I'm at serious risk of referencing THAT film in a minute) - basically I wanted it to be quite light, as it would go with more items in my wardrobe. Most bags available on the high street at the moment tend to run quite dark, and often look quite drab as a consequence. So, when I spotted this last week, my eyes lit up and as they say, it was love at first sight.

This is very structured design, which initially I saw as problematic, until I realised that the zips do in fact open all the way down the sides of the bag. The zip do have a slight gold tinge to them, but only very slight and in this instance actually complements the shade of the leather. It comes with short handles, and a long strap that can be detached if needs be. The size is just right, and big enough to fit in my usual items that I take with me on a weekend - but isn't so big that I'm throwing everything but the kitchen sink in there. In short, it's exactly what I've been looking for! I have only ever bought two bags before that have been of a considerable price (A Ted Baker and my satchel from The Leather Satchel Company, if you're wondering), so splashing out on this is not something I'm doing lightly. However, if my resolve holds out and I don't spend all my money, this will be mine!