a review of the aspinal of london inserts (sold on their site)

Though not technically Aspinal of London inserts, they are sold on their website.

I googled the company that makes these and they are an Italian company (which makes sense, as in my previous post, you can clearly see that the tabs are in Italian when you turn them over). These inserts fit perfectly into a Filofax personal-sized organiser too.

These are what the squared paper inserts look like when blank:

And I tried out various pens on them (I forgot to try fountain pens on them!):

And a closer look, in better lighting:

Overleaf, you can see that there is quite a bit of show-through for the majority of pens! The Pentel Energel (just about), Pilot Frixion, Muji Erasable, and Pilot Hi-Tec pens were all fine but the rest were not so good. 

And a closer look:

The paper quality really isn't that good. I never thought I would say this but the Filofax refills are actually of a higher quality if you compare them to the cotton cream refills and if you compare them with the white refills, I think they are on a par. And my Muji gels rarely show through on any paper so I was surprised when there was a little bit of that in this case. As a result of this, I don't think you'd have anymore luck with fountain pens and this paper.

All in all, stick to the Filofax cotton cream refills if you have to use ivory coloured paper, or just buy your own ivory A4 paper and cut it down to size (what I do).

a closer look at the aspinal of london organiser inserts

Just a warning: there are 26 pictures in this post! Also, apologies for the blurriness of some of the pictures - they were taken in low light.

If you haven't read my previous post about this organiser, then please do so here. It will explain why I only had this in my possession for a short few hours and why I did not get a replacement.

The first picture shows the top tabs.

And because I forgot to show this in my previous post, this is the packaging the organiser came in:

The first page is card and looks quite luxurious.

The inserts are actually Eurotime ones:

There is a personal info sheet (it is actually card!) and calendars for 2013, 2014 and 2015.

A yearly planner, but with 6 months to view.

Holidays, and then, onto the diary.

The diary insert layout is a WO2P one. I love the lines and the minimalistic design of them.

Important dates to note for the year after (such a good idea!):

A notes page and also tabbed telephone numbers inserts.

To-do sheets:

Sheets for appointments:

Address sheets:

Project sheets:

Goals:

More inserts where you can write notes:

Graph paper:

Expenses inserts:

Important dates inserts on the 'diary' tab:

The addresses tab which also has international dialling codes and whatnot:

Memo tab (don't you just love the dotted pattern of the tab):

Planner tab:

A view of the side tabs:

A world map that was included:

Clear plastic wallets/pockets (with some hole reinforcers and label stickers):

Another clear plastic wallet:

And that's it! Sorry about this mammoth post and the lack of text. I could have split this post into two but I didn't see a point due to the fact that no explanations were required for each of the pictures.

I hope you enjoyed a closer look at the inserts included with an Aspinal organiser. They appear to be from a company called Eurotime, I think it is? They definitely aren't Aspinal brand ones and the paper quality will be explored further in a post in a few days' time.

I am bitterly disappointed with what happened with my order and I would have loved for the replacement to have arrived as promised, and in a perfect condition, but it was just not to be. I think the amount of inserts you get along with the organiser is fantastic too, so that is another win to Aspinal of London.

aspinal of london purple croc compact A5 organiser

Filofax tried really hard to combine fashion and functionality with their Temperley for London collaboration. Truth be told, I did love The Affair. However, it wasn't functional - I mean, the rings were dodgy after a few months of use!? (And some would also argue that it isn't fashionable, but each to their own!) And I think I've found a brand that does both fashion and functionality brilliantly, and without alienating their core customers too.

Aspinal of London.

When I first ordered this organiser, it arrived with major flaws and damaged rings. Let me explain.

The major flaws were in the leather - there were scrapes and whatnot and I tried to get rid of them using a slightly damp cloth, but to no avail. There were about five or six scrapes and this was not something I expected. With the rings, one of the pins keeping the rings in place and on the binder had come off altogether! See what I mean:

This meant that the bottom half of the rings were hanging off the binder. I contacted customer services about this with pictures attached and they offered me a replacement after sending this one back.

However, I sent it back and I didn't hear anything for days and that's when I emailed to find out what was going on - only to be told that it had been processed as a return instead of an exchange! Annoying, right? And to re-order, I had to give my credit card details over the phone and that is something I am reluctant to do (for some reason, I think doing it over the internet is a bit safer?). Anyway, I took pictures of the faulty binder before sending it back as I hadn't noticed this flaw until I opened the rings to move in!

I am gutted that the order didn't work out as I really did fall in love with this organiser - but due to a mis-communication between the customer services team, I did not receive the replacement. I am not sure if this will be the last time I will order from them, but certainly, at the moment, I do still have that 'raw disappointment' feeling and so, do not see myself buying anything from them - in person or online. Can you imagine if the product became faulty before the warranty was up? That is one good thing about Filofax - their customer service has always been top-notch.

Furthermore, all of this happened in the run-up to Christmas - a time when I was incredibly stressed and could have done without all this, so I hope you can understand my frustration! It was a time when nothing was going right and this really didn't help.

Anyway, as promised, here are pictures and a review (quite brief as I was expecting to do a full review after the replacement arrived).

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So without further ado, let me introduce the Aspinal of London Purple Croc and Cream Suede Compact A5 personal organiser (what a mouthful, eh). The colour is more of a deep purple, rather than the Osterley purple:

When you open it up, you are greeted with this sight and on the left hand side, there is a slip pocket and also some card slots.

The rings are 26mm and although it would have been better for them to have been gold in colour, I think the silver fits in really well with the design:

And on the right, this is what you'll see: a pen holder and another slip pocket:

One thing to note is the detailing; the clasp isn't a button one and there is a small 'coat of arms' on the top right of the front cover of the organiser. This little shield does look a bit wonky, but I haven't seen other organisers to compare this.

I really love the suede and leather contrast, and the ring size adds that something extra. I honestly think that this organiser is the perfect balance between fashion and usability. I definitely would not be ashamed to whip this out of my bag in public (in fact, I would be quite proud to do so!) and because it isn't as common as a Filofax, I feel like I would love it all the more.

Moreover, the price is about the same as some of the higher end Filofax organisers and I feel like this one is of superior quality! The suede contrast adds that bit of luxury, and the purple croc colour introduces a bit of fashion to, what some would regard as, a trivial thing: a diary.

I've become more and more disillusioned with Filofax in recent months but still have not found my perfect organiser. A perfect organiser would be one that I love (like this one) but has been made by a company that provides brilliant service (which, unfortunately, Aspinal have not done on this ocassion).

Last words: the leather is beautiful. It is stiff enough to feel sturdy, but not so stiff that it doesn't lie flat! And the smell is awesome. Honestly, this definitely feels more luxurious than a Filofax and with the cost similar to the higher end organisers offered by Filofax, I feel this could be one of the options people could go for instead. Maybe I just had a bad experience with regards to the customer service but it is enough for me to keep looking for another company that makes Filofax-insert compatible organisers. I guess it just wasn't meant to be between myself and an Aspinal binder and, judging by what happened after, it seemed that a better thing was around the corner (more on this in two weeks!).

In another post, I will be taking a closer look at the inserts (I ordered a few packs of these too, though they are not of the Aspinal brand) and how different pens and ink look on them. So stay tuned for that!