Rhodia stationery makes me want to be a better person.

This week I have been drooling incontinently over my new Rhodia Essential box. In essence, it's a cardboard box full of paper and a couple of pencils but what it really represents is something far more valuable. For me, it's a symbol of my attempt to impose order in a life of chaos. I know for some people stationery and its associate, storage, are means by which they maintain a structured and carefully regimented life; however, for me this is most definitely aspirational stuff and is something that l'Essentiel (it is actually French - I'm not *just* being pretentious) has in spades.

The French make some pretty fine school stationery and I love the Rhodia cahiers anyway - really good quality high grade vellum paper and writing on 5x5 quadrille has certain je ne sais quoi (OK, I'll stop now) that makes me want to get out a fountain pen and start writing my 1s with fancy flourishes.

But, ultimately,  it's the box that makes l'Essentiel so irresitible. Closed, it look like a big, fat, satisfying pad of A5 but it's a trompe l'oeil (I can't help it!) which hides a No.16, a No.8 and two No.11 pads, plus two Rhodia pencils. People, this is a box! With stationery in it! Really good stationery! And it costs less than a tenner. But, more than this, it makes you feel really, REALLY organised.

 


(Just one word of warning: BureauDirect http://www.bureaudirect.co.uk/ wrapped this really carefully in reams of bubble wrap but one corner of the box still got bashed about a bit in transit.)