Guest post by Victoria Sibley of Mzuri Design

My name is Victoria, and I am a bag-aholic. There, I said it. In public and everything.

I have lots – for work, for casual use, for holidays, for carting round baby gear, for nights out (ha! what are they??!! See previous comment!) , so I fell over myself to offer my services as a bag tester when Shona tweeted that she was looking for them.

What’s more, she gave me a choice that included the very bag I’d been slathering over on her website just a few weeks prior – the large leather shopper in a zingy orange colour.

I used to have a much smaller, suede, variation on this bag – I loved the ‘raw edges’ and shape to that one, so Shona’s bigger, and more grown up, version looked like it would fit the bill, and I wasn’t wrong.

The bag arrived in super quick time, including a phonecall from her studio to ask which bag organiser I’d like to try out with it – oh hello? A bag organiser you say? Bring it on!

Anyway, bag arrives, I yank it out and give it a good old sniff. Ooo yes, lovely lovely leather, I like it. And look how ROOMY it is. And how the colour just pops.  And it’s got that nice, soft, grainy feel to it, not that tough, shiny leather that just doesn’t do it for me.

So far so good.

Now, unusually, I had two holidays booked in fairly quick succession this summer – Portugal for a quiet family week, and Malta for a friend’s wedding.  And my orange bag would need to come, and prove to be as good in function as in form. I have to say, it did the trick.

It doesn’t have any form of closure like a zip or popper, so I was a bit worried about being in a busy airport environment, where any old mucky paw could reach in and nick my wallet/phone/passport, but the organiser (which, ok, someone in my office did say looked a little like a washbag!) sorted that problem. No way was anyone going to be able to get that out without me noticing and, in the end, not having a zip was BRILLIANT because I could access everything instantly.

You know what a holiday bag is like – everything and anything gets thrown in. Purse, phone, keys, tissues, Kindle, stupid-plastic-bag-containing-liquids-I-won’t-use….and these days with a toddler in tow,  I also have to add a spare nappy, wipes, miniature boxes of raisins, a sippy cup etc. It’s like Pandora’s Box in there. Well, I’m happy to report that there was more than enough room for all of that lot, and being able to sling the bag over my shoulder, or happily carry it in my hand without it dragging on the floor, was a massive plus.

It also did well at being a day bag once we were away – be it to the beach or shops – and the colour was just fabulously sunny and bright, like the weather. The great thing is, as we nudge into autumn, the change in daylight means that the orange now takes on a turning-leaf kind of colour.

I’ve used it for both work and as a change bag since we’ve been back too, so it really has been put through it’s paces!

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the bag. You can fit your whole life in it, it’s versatile, and it is absolutely the best quality leather. I’d probably skip the organiser if you don’t generally carry heaps with you, but a nice extra for when you need it. And frankly, any bag that can come out the other side of two overseas holidays with a sticky toddler looking just as good as it did before, is a winner in my book.