I'll do my best to explain it but it's kind of hard. I have the carryall in cobalt and LOVE it. I like the texture and the way it looks. The soft gold leather feels 'thinner' and it looks veiny to me. The leather looked slightly crackled and, to me, not in a good way. Other people may love it but it just paled in comparison to the other HH items I have. I have the Ursula coin purse in black, plum and cobalt and the Inka in black. I also have the mercer clutch wallet in blue croc and the mercer satchel in blue croc. I love the leather on all of them. The leather on the gold carryall felt most like the garment washed leather on the mercer blue croc items but, seems like I remember it being more scratchy. I guess I should thank you for asking about this because this post is making me realize how ridiculous my Hayden-Harnett collection has gotten in less than 2 months! Yikes!