We play with a very handsome wallet
First up, a bit about Isaac Reina… he’s awesome. The luxury world is 9 parts wank to each 1 of goodness, and it’s usually Isaac that’s behind that goodness. Having learned his trade with Hermès, Maison Martin Margiela (before they sold out), and Antonio Miro, this Barcelonian born designer has been churning out carry goodness from a base in Paris for several years now. Each season he plays with a theme, with increasingly awesome results.
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The leather
Isaac gets leather. Each season he builds his range with just a few leathers, but each of them is nailed in a luxury kind of way. While we don’t love the patent leather seasons, this wallet is part of an analine calf batch that treats both sides and results in a buttery and very fine grained leather. Like a high end chef, the quality of his ingredients means they don’t need much adornment, so you get a stripped back aesthetic that lets the leather be the hero.
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The Construction
Painted edges, embossed edge detailing, immaculate stitching (which triples back for better anchoring) and flawless embossing. This is French craft at its finest.
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The Design
Don’t expect loads of features. This is semi extreme minimalism, with the goal of making a statement with its simplicity.
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The Functionality
Haha, yeah, so you need to be disciplined like a ballerina to run with a wallet like this. But if your sock draw is single layer, your underwear gets folded, and your fingernails repel dirt, then this is the wallet for you.
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The Price?
Steep, but not stratospheric. At around $400 USD, you certainly get better value than most luxury brands.
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Where to buy?
We got our’s from Epatant in Melbourne, but there should hopefully be a retailer somewhere near you.
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I’m sure the workmanship is up there, but to call a 400 USD wallet (a very basic design too, it’s one-fold and nothing fancy, not even card slots) “not stratospheric” made me chuckle
I use a saddleback ID wallet that set me back 30. Premium materials (the workmanship is more “rugged” for sure), made in America and 100 year warranty included. A one-fold design similar to the one reviewed here would be below $50.
The wallet here is nice for sure, probably crafted perfectly from high grade materials, but $400 is nonetheless stratospheric, there’s no other word for it
$400. !?!?! LOL
I’ll need my $400 for the neurologist who sees me because I hit my head when I fell to the floor laughing.
Ando — can typical US sized credit cards be “stood up” side to side in the Reina divided wallet (rather than laying horizontally as depicted in the photos above)? Thanks.
Almost, but not really.
They stick out the top around 2 mm, and don’t really stay in place. Which is a pity, because that really does almost work, with 2 cards side by side on each face of the wallet.
So close…