Il BIsonte agenda Insider

I admit that I've been a little taken with tri-fold binders since first reading about Paul's vintage Lefax Chelsea. However, I've never seriously considered buying one as they tend to sell for a higher price than I'd like to pay. I'd forgotten all about them really until joining one of the Facebook sales groups recently, and to my surprise came across an Il Bisonte Insider for a similar price to a brand new personal Malden! I had decided not to buy any more binders until next year, but thought that I may regret passing this one up.

The wonderful undyed vachetta leather ages and darkens over time with use and exposure to light.

Sadly the lovely seller, Pamela, didn't know any thing about its history, but the beautiful and soft leather has darkened to a beautiful honey or caramel colour.

On the left hand side, there are two poppers for the snap fastening, three credit card slots and a full length slip pocket. On the right, a full length zipped pocket and internal pen holder (instead of a loop). Both the full length pockets are very roomy and the soft leather makes them very easy to get into. I'm not a fan of the horizontal credit card slots though, as they're quite short which means the cards stick out and sit against the rings. Due to the placement of the pen holder, I think that side tabs could get a little squashed, depending on the size of your pen. I think the gold coloured rings go very well with the leather colour.  

My plan had been to take part in a belated One Book July to give this beauty a proper test drive. However, I have a confession... and you may consider me a bit crazy, but I only had it a week before selling to the lovely Mella...

Why?
Two situations clarified why the Il Bisonte wasn't the binder for me:
1) I took it with me to work one day in my usual messenger bag. The bag has several compartments and I normally keep my lunch in the front, with a book and binder in the back one. Whilst they're separated, items do rest against each due to the soft construction of the bag and divider. When the end of the day came, I found that I actually didn't want to put the Il Bisonte back in my bag as I knew that it would most likely get marked or dented against either my hardback book or tupperware container
2) As I already had doubts about keeping it, I instead moved the contents back into my Kensington and took that with me to a family gathering to make some notes in. Once I was finished, I dropped it back into the bottom of a shopping bag that we'd taken with us. At the end of the day, we made our way home and I noticed that other items had been placed on top of my binder. As I emptied the bag later, I realised that I wouldn't have wanted the Il Bisonte to be in the bottom of the slightly grubby bag with other stuff on top. I'm a pretty low maintenance type of person, and don't baby my planners or keep them in pouches. I keep my keys away from my Kensington, but other than that it gets shoved and squeezed into bags with all sorts of items.

I guess I feel that it's still a happy ending as:
1) The Il Bisonte found its way to a great new home and I didn't waste any money
2) I learnt another lesson about exactly what I need or don't want in a binder
3) It's made me more grateful for my Kensington with its soft and hard wearing leather.