Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. In fact I had really considered to get the Oroton instead of the Hermès Evelyne. I'm not sure I wanted to spend that kind of money on bag and I'm also really turned off by the Hermès Cat-and-mouse game to get one.Hello, Heart Bags! Good to see you here! I hope you don't mind this long post. Take it from an Australian woman who wants to support an Australian brand but who is also trying to be objective.
The Margot-mini bucket bag is lovely; I see it as a good mix or classic and modern. You can trust Oroton's quality if you buy from their normal web (there is a link there to the outlet but that is a different story), and this little bucket bag is on their main site, so the quality should be great as seems to be the same of my old laptop bag, which is still going. I am not saying that their outlet is not good, in fact, there are some great bargains there nowadays, their best bags do not make it to their Outlet website unless they have very small defects ( which most of the time are not really visible to the eye), and lots of the outlet bags there have been there for years and are only made for the outlet but . Now, let's be realistic, I buy lots of staff from Oroton but I also have Hermes, Chanel, Dior, Ferragamo and other more fashionable brands, and obviously OROTON is not HERMES, having reasonable expectations matters. Oroton will last you for years but HERMES may last you forever. That is what I mean, so I am going to compare Oroton to other similar contemporary brands. I am Australian, over the last years I have decided to support Oroton more than other brand, especially since the relatively new creative director has given it a fresher look, yet it still remains classy. Oroton is the quintessential Australian classic brand, which speaks a lot about our lifestyle here. Admittedly, there are new contemporary international brands which are trying to be around the same price point or slightly above, yet in terms of quality and market presence they cannot compete with Oroton, Oroton's hardware looks good, while most of the new contemporary brands have hardware that tends to look cheap (i.e. Deadly Ponies is a brand that present itself as I would not buy, some their designs may be fine but the quality of their hardware screams uber cheap to me, DP advertises itself as New Zealander, but it will never be Oroton). I expect Oroton to start increasing prices slowly, much of their clothing is already been sold out, as they expand their lines (though they are predominantly a bag brand), their prices will increase for sure, but the world is still impacted by the financial issues caused by COVID, so the prices are increasing slowly.
I too was considering buying the Margot mini-bucket bag too because I know the colour of the picture is very similar to the one you see in person, the lighting affects how it looks, but keep in mind that changes in tone/depth of the colour also happen, in person too, this bag looks prettier in the sun, of course, but also indoors, it is just that lighting matters. This mini- Margot is versatile and it won't be heavy, so it is a win/win. I am very slim so ideal for me. This mini-margot would look good on anyone. Every now and then I look at what Oroton has and just recently I bought two beautiful Oroton bags, full price at the stores. They were gone, you cannot find them online or store now. One gorgeous green one and a blue bag. There are similar styles left but not those ones. The mini-Margot will probably be available for longer due to the colour of the leather and the style, so you can take a bit of time to think about it. I have several Oroton bucket bags, including some made of smooth leather. If you are still unsure, consider similar brands at that price point, and you will see they cannot even compete with Oroton, in terms of presence on the street and image. Keep in mind that we are not comparing Oroton to far more expensive brands.
Are there any other Oroton designs that you enjoy?
PS: Do not look at random reviews you find online, negative reviews are usually related to delays or to the outlet. Remember that people who are happy don't always post reviews while those who are not tend to be very vocal about it, and no one single brand has 100% perfect items, just look at the complaints on the Chanel section.
Still on the fence but you gave me some things to think about.