Yes I have a new wallet!

On top of my Hong Kong shopping list was a new wallet (you may have read about my research). Before I left Hong Kong I went to the Ferragamo counter at DJs and store in MLC to have a look at their wallets and I fell in love with a wallet with the signature Ferragamo bow. I saw picture of that wallet in many colours online but the stores in Sydney only has it in black.

Before my trip I e-mailed one of the Ferragamo stores in HK and enquired about that wallet. The salesperson told me they have the wallet in light gold (not my style) and "Bordeaux". When I asked her what "Bordeaux" looked like she kindly sent me a photo.

I thought it was a nice neutral colour so I was 95% certain that I'd purchase it. I paid Ferragamo a visit soon after I arrived in HK. To my disappointment the photo was not an accurate representation of the colour - it was much closer to burgundy which pushed the wallet into granny territory :-(

I had lunch with my sister one day, and we decided to search for a wallet together afterwards.

I was attached to the Saffiano leather so we went to Prada to have another look. I considered this wallet. On the plus side it had lots of credit card slots, but it was a tad long.

We also went to Miu Miu to look at the two wallets that I blogged about earlier. I was seriously considering the smaller version but I wasn't 100% sure about the patent leather, plus the sales staff were rude so I didn't want to make a purchase there.

We looked at LV, Celine, Fendi, Burberry (plus others, I cannot remember them all) with no luck. We took a break and enjoyed afternoon tea at Cova (I posted a photo of the tiramisu we had in the last post. The dry ice effect was so dramatic and it was yummo!).

My sister then took me to the cake shop at Mandarin Oriental because she wanted to buy one for our big family gathering. As we were leaving the building she asked "What about Chloé?" as there was a Chloé boutique on ground floor. For some reason I didn't think of Chloé at all when I was doing my research but I was open to the suggestion.

I think you can see where the story is going. Yep, I found "the one" at the store!

Starting with the box ...

inside the dust bag ...

is my brand new wallet!

(click photo to see a larger image)

I love that it is something different. It's pretty and feminine but with an edge.

According to the receipt it is part of the Paraty collection. I couldn't see the relationship until I came across this on the Chloé website.

 
Back to the wallet. There is a coin compartment with press button at the front.

Next comes a zipper compartment.

Finally there are 8 credit card slots and the notes compartment.

For completeness here's the back of the wallet.

The leather is buttery soft - it is lambskin but it doesn't feel as fragile as the Chanel Camellia wallet I saw during my research.

I did the wallet transfer last night. Right now I have 8 of the most important cards in the cards slots, and the rest in the zipper compartment. I'm not sure whether that is the best way to go, I'll give it a go and see if I like it.

One interesting thing about the wallet is that the notes compartment is on the opposite side compared to my old wallet. When I accessed the notes compartment with my old wallet, the weight of the wallet is in my palm. However with the new wallet the weight will be away from my palm. It's a bit difficult to explain. If you look at the second last photo where you can see the credit card slots, you can see the rest of the wallet is to the right of the slots. I am a leftie and I accessed the notes compartment of my old wallet by holding the wallet with my left hand and getting the notes out with my right hand. If I do the same thing with the new wallet the bulk of the wallet will be hanging in the air.

I told my brother about this after I bought the wallet and he told me he went through the same thing when he changed wallets a few years ago, and it took him a long time to get used to it. I wonder how I'll go with it?

I am so happy with the wallet, not just because it is beautiful, but because I discovered it with my sister and we can treasure that memory together (only women can understand shopping as a treasurable moment, no?). She ended up buying the wallet for me so it is extra special! Thanks sis <3

Actually I left the store with something besides the wallet, but that's the subject of another post ...

Photo credits: Ferragamo wallet from photo taken by Ferragamo Times Square Hong Kong, Prada wallet from Prada.com, Chloé Paraty bag from chloe.com