As I mentioned in one of my monthly recap posts, I got this bag from the Hermes boutique in Waikiki during one of my visits home. I found a really nice SA there who offered me this after the purchase of the Roulis wallet. Even though Picotins are pretty common on the resale market, they’re also commonly faked so I decided to play it safe and get it straight from the store (even though it’s about $1-$2k more than resale prices). So how do I like it?
For the longest time I didn’t use the bag. I used it once when I happened to go grocery shopping and it was such a pain to hand carry or carry it on the crook of my arm that I didn’t use it for awhile after that. Then I decided to get a third party strap from Etsy and have found that I’m using it quite a bit now. (Note about the 3rd party strap: I got it in the 50cm length but I found it a tad too long, with the excess leather strap sometimes hanging off the end. If I were to get it again I would have gone shorter especially since I only use the strap over my shoulder—I don’t crossbody the bag.). But overall I’m really happy that I got the strap since it has made carrying the Picotin so much easier.
Other than the strap, I also bought a bag organizer for the Picotin because without it the soft Clemence leather just collapses in on itself. And in the long run I didn’t want the leather to concave in the corners like this one (which I think is more apt to happen on the 22 size because it’s larger so there’s more leather and thus heavier). Plus having an organizer definitely makes it easier to find things in this bucket bag. (Note about the organizer: having tried several brands, my favorite is Zoomoni. I like their well made, lightweight felt organizers and they tend to be a little more affordable than the other brands out there. Plus I use Maggyxchuu20 to get 20% off).
And lastly I bought a vintage Hermes snail lock to use instead of the lock it comes with (just for fun 😆).
Now that I’ve used the bag for the last several months (for a total of 27 times so far) I have to say this bag is quite easy to use once you add the 3rd party strap. I love that I can throw things in and that the bag fits a lot. Because of the bucket shape, I can even throw in a water bottle (though it will stick up through the top). And even though the base of this is a large-ish rectangle, I don’t find it bulky to use at all. I think this might be because of the soft Clemence leather.
Honestly before I got the bag I was a bit dubious of it’s utility, but now I love the bag. My only pet peeve is that when you open up the bag all the way, the strap with the lock sometimes gets stuck in the two square rings, thus it can’t easily close back up again. I have to untangle the strap/lock area and pull the strap back down to close the bag. Also I would never carry this bag in a crowded area since it can’t be fully closed.
But overall I love using this bag now and it’s my most used Hermes bag in the last three months (even beating out the Garden Party and my vintage Vespa). I can see why this is many people’s first Hermes bag and I think it’s 100% worth it (though it’d definitely be more worth it if you can find a good one secondhand—I suggest trying Fashionphile and then getting it authenticated by a third party like Bababebi). Or you might be able to get it straight from the boutique since I feel like this is a common “starter bag” from Hermes.