You guys, it’s finally here!
Our long awaited Gillio giramondos arrived in the mail this week! For him, I chose the epoca green color and he chose an epoca rust for me. This is actually my early Christmas present to him, and a late birthday present to me because I couldn’t decide what I wanted.
So, I have to be honest. While I already own two other Gillio planners, they’re actually the real ostrich ones. I’ve never owned an epoca leather planner. So, I figured this time I would try for one of Gillio’s more popular leathers and as a result, settled on the epoca rust after debating between the colors of grey, rust or yellow. And honestly, I’m so happy that I did it. I love my ostrich planners, but the epoca leather has its own charm, and the leather smell is so fantastic.
I mean, just look how fabulous they look!
From the photos on the Gillio website I really thought his would be a much darker green, almost like an evergreen, but it was really just a solid true green. I was shocked that they could even get that kind of vibrant color on leather. The epoca rust on the other hand is this lovely reddish-brown that really just chameleons back and forth depending on the lighting and time of day. I’ve seen it look more brown to even a deep brick red.
Mine has slightly smaller pebbles than his, and that’s the appearance I prefer. But his was so much softer and squisher than mine, and the leather smell was so much stronger on his as well. I think we’ll be conditioning mine with some Saphir Medaille d’Or Nappa Leather Balm sometime soon to see if it helps. Overall, both planners feel wonderful in the hand. There’s a bit of weight behind the leather, but it’s not overbearingly heavy. It just makes it feel more solid and premium.
Inside on the left flap, the cover has 4 credit card slots and a full length pocket. The, on the right flap it has a secretarial pocket along with a riveted hole on the left side where the elastic to keep your book closed is strung through. Along the spine the giramondo has 4 riveted holes, two top and two bottom (vertically rather than side by side), where the elastic is strung through to give you 4 bands different bands you can use to hold your inserts. I personally found both the insert and cover elastics’ tension to be too loose, and I spent a good 30 minutes restringing both to a tension that I thought was more appropriate. They also had an elastic bookmark, but I just removed mine because I thought it was unnecessary. It was just a piece of elastic tied to the other elastics on the inside, I really just thought it diminished the premium look and feel of the cover.
Overall, both Joonho and I were extremely pleased with this purchase. If Gillio has an undyed leather restock before the end of the year, I may purchase one last one but if not, both of us are happy with these being our BIFL traveler’s notebook covers.
I think the price is a bit steep for someone who doesn’t use traveler’s notebooks regularly, but the quality is worth the price for someone who uses planners day to day or loves quality leather in general.
