This is a wonderful purse. I got the dark coffee brown color and I love the richness of the hue. I have had issues with purses for both my spouse and I in the past with zippers. They specifically have trouble with zippers popping open and ruining their bags. With the Gladstone clasp in this timeless style purse, that isn't an issue. The purse was so nice that we ordered a second one for them so we can match.

The lining is very soft and supple and the two internal pockets are perfect for dividing things; I use the smaller pocket to store doctor's appointment cards, a tide pen, and my ballpoint pen. There is plenty of room for a 3 oz bottle of perfume, a sunglasses case, a small wallet, and everything you need for makeup and nail essentials. I even have room for our baby's first stuffed animal pacifier holder and two notebooks.

I am 6'2" and I find that the cross body strap is sufficiently long. When I extend the strap all the way I find the purse hangs just above my hip right below my waist and stays close to my body but doesn't slap my hip when I walk. Although since I carry a lot of things in my purse I found I had to order one of Love41's purse shoulder straps as the cross body strap is quite narrow. However, it is a high quality strap and the hardware is excellent quality stainless steel with a mirror polish.

When the purse first arrived we found that the leather was still quite stiff and "grabby" which made opening the purse a challenge. However, I applied a few coats of "Chamberlain's Leather Milk" formula no 1 liniment and a few coats of the no 3 formula water protectant to my purse, especially near the mouth and by the hinges. After a week of daily use the hinge is nice and softened enough that opening the purse is no longer a challenge but it is still super secure.

Saddleback actually sells Chamberlain's products on their website and they smell wonderful and are free of toxic chemicals, although the bottles still say not to eat the contents. The Liniment smells like coconut oil and the water protectant smells like Christmas trees. The water protectant really helps keep the purse and its contents dry, I've been caught out in a rain shower a few times since I first got my purse and water beads off of the surface of the leather once the water protectant is applied. The liniment takes about 5 minutes to dry per coat while the water protectant takes about 1 hour.

Received and it's beautiful great quality leather and it's breath taking.

I have purchased many of your products over the past decade and I would consider myself a Saddleback advocate at the least. However, this is the first time I’ve had issue with design. When we adjusted the strap to the proper length, the excess slack is impossible to manage. My suggestion would be to incorporate at least one additional slack loop to hold the strap firmly in place. Luckily I was able to attach one of your cord wraps to accomplish the task.photo of solution available upon request.

This purse is so incredibly popular that someone recently stole it from my wife.

My wife was so in love with this purse, and it was to be her forever purse. But alas, her pleasure did not see it's first birthday.

Hoping to provide her with another opportunity to love this purse, as our anniversary approaches!

I agree with the reviewer who said the hinge mechanism interferes with the long straps. You must adjust the bag to make sure it hangs straight which is annoying. The pebbled leather is gorgeous, however. The size is good for a purse, but not large enough to carry a ton of stuff in my opinion. The weight is great too- not too heavy. I wish the handles were just a tad longer to make it usable as a shoulder bag.