'Gator Heaven

I work from 9-5, Monday to Friday, I live in London, and yet my mother exclaimed "What's that bag?!" when I went home with my rather executive-looking messenger bag I found in Oxfam some time last year.

That's because I'm not executive. I don't, and have never worked behind a desk, I can wear what I want to work (within reason) but I tend to look a bit more executive than I need to; I love beautiful tailoring and I've just recently got sick of shirts buttoned-to-the-neck. I also collect handmade silk ties (not that I ever wear them).

Keeping these two facts in mind, I've never needed a Filofax, that is, until I stumbled across the one I found yesterday.

Flicking through the menswear, as I usually do (so bored of those shirts), I skimmed passed the Farhi suit that's been hanging in this particular charity shop for eternity and then the line ends, no more men's clothes, just the bookshelves. "Any five for £1" I think the current offer was, I usually glance over the shelves to see if any ancient-looking spines are smiling with their weathered leather at me, but I didn't need to this time - the bargain* was sat on the third shelf up, not tucked in with the books, just casually lying on it's back, basking in the yellow classroom lights.

They say you gauge someone's personality within the first five seconds of you meeting them (or something like that) my first five seconds with this Filofax was "There's no way it's alligator" My hand moving towards it "It's embossed leather. If it's leather at all."

Nope, it's alligator. The smell of leather, the irregularities of the scales, the sheer weight of the thing, the beautiful patent shine it has from use.
It was a vintage alligator 'Agenda' by Mulberry.
There was no question as to whether I needed it; in the corner on a label was written the price in Biro:
£1.50.

It's at least a decade old, I'm sure there should be a tube line on the Underground map on the first page that didn't exist when it was created.
But there's no denying the quality, especially of the material it is crafted from.

Vintage Mulberry alligator agenda - £1.50

Oh, and there's a new agenda on the Mulberry website, crafted from the still-exotic-but-not-quite-alligator-standard ostrich skin, selling for £895.


*I dislike the word bargain and I'm not really sure why. It seems to bring to mind crazed shoppers buying things they'll gag over later.