O bag

If you like the idea of one bag you can keep restyling, it earns its place. O bag is an Italian brand built around minimalist, modular design, so a single body can be reworked with new handles, inserts and colours instead of buying a whole new bag. Owners often praise the bags as classy, easy to clean and water-resistant, which adds to the everyday value.

They are designed to be hard-wearing and low-maintenance. The signature O bag body is made from a flexible elastomeric foam that wipes clean and holds up to daily use, and the brand's whole appeal rests on durable, customisable pieces. As with any brand, buyer experiences with individual stockists vary, so it is worth ordering from an official O bag store or its own site.

The core difference is that it is built to change. A traditional leather bag is fixed, whereas an O bag starts as a soft foam shell whose handles and interior can be swapped and recoloured to suit your taste. It is less a single finished product and more a customisable system you build around your own style.

It traces back to the very first product. The brand's debut item was a watch called the O clock, echoing the way you say the time in English, and the company kept the "O" as a way of identifying everything it makes. It works much like the "i" in Apple products, a small naming signature that ties the range together.

Customisable, mix-and-match accessories with a clean Italian look. The flagship O bag is fully customisable and made from elastomeric foam in around 20 colours, most drawn from the brand's watch palette. That blend of playful colour and modular design is what people recognise it for.

O bag was founded in 2009 in Padua, Italy, originally under the name Full Spot with a focus on watches. Its products were first exhibited at the Milan International Exhibition in 2010, and the brand has since grown to a presence in over 50 countries worldwide.

It started with watches, not bags. In 2010 the brand developed the O clock, a watch with a silicone strap and interchangeable faces, the original of which had a plain white face with no numbers. Both the face and strap can be swapped, which set the template of customisation that runs through everything O bag has made since.

The O chive is O bag's pocket watch, released in 2011. It keeps the minimalist look of the O clock with a plain white face, but adds a second hand, a soft-touch plastic shell and a white matt-varnished metal chain and clip. True to the brand, the plastic shell can be removed and swapped for another colour.

Yes, customisation is the whole point. The O bag body comes in around 20 colours, and its handles and interior can be personalised with a variety of materials and colours. The O clock watch works the same way, with interchangeable faces and straps that, in the Tone-on-Tone range, allow hundreds of possible combinations.

Its best-known tie-in is with Disney. O bag collaborated with Disney to develop a range of watch faces featuring some of the studio's most famous characters, a special edition that fits naturally with the brand's swap-and-restyle approach. It is a good example of how the interchangeable design lends itself to themed collections.