Unveiling the Charleston

After I decided to try using the FF A5 as an everyday work planner, I moved into my Black Patent FF Original. When I saw it was working for me, I finally went ahead and ordered the Charleston. While I loved the red one on the website, I didn’t have the guts to order it, because I felt it may be too conspicuous to use at work. So I ordered the purple, which to me, seemed like the next best thing.

It arrived today and I am so pleased that I spent that I spent all that money for it. It wasn’t cheap but it was worth it.

It came in a very unassuming white box. I do miss the lovely black boxes of Filofax. The binder itself was wrapped in plastic, as they usually are nowadays.
When I saw this binder online or even various blogs, I always got the sense that it would be a floppy binder, much like the Original (I’m actually glad it’s not!). It also seemed much thinner online.

The colour is a very deep purple. Without good lighting, you can hardly tell that it’s purple. I will have to look at it in the sunlight to tell the difference. The grain of the leather is lovely though, and that’s what makes the binder worth it.

The interior layout is simple. It is not covered in leather, but rather canvas, which is ok. 5 card slots in the front with two slip pockets – one facing outwards much like the Kendal. It also comes with really nice phone pocket (I’m assuming). But the pocket is so tight, it’s practically useless. My Samsung Note3 will never fit because of the size. And even the iPhone 5 doesn’t fit in well without stressing the binder. I’ll probably put it to some other use. I do like this lovely black plastic-y page which follows the fly page.

Other than that, it came with the usual A5 inserts, full set of A-Z dividers and unmarked tabbed dividers. What’s funniest is that it came with a great notepad, even though this binder doesn’t have a notepad holder at the back. So they just fixed it on to the rings. The back has a full length slip pocket and 2 vertical card slots, like the Osterley and one elastic pen holder.

The one drawback is that the slip pockets are quite tight and would be difficult to hold a lot of pages. This may be good to avoid overstuffing.

I am very pleased with binder and moving in right away.