I have two exotic Filofaxes – a Red Lizard and a Buttercup Ostrich, both in personal size. My Lizard is almost 20 years old and my Buttercup is about four months old.
They are beautiful binders – both have replaceable rings and the leather is extremely hardwearing. The design of both is excellent with every millimeter of space utilized to best effect. The buttercup in particular is the best designed organiser I have EVER owned.
The exotic range comprises Ostrich, Lizard and Alligator. New designs have recently come out and new colours for the Alligator – red and green.
Have heard some small whisperings that the quality of some of the skins recently has not been what it was. So maybe this is why…..
…..the exotics have been discontinued. *sob*
This is a real pity because these binders were, in my opinion, the only ones in recent years which justified a high price tag, unlike the Affair and the Guinea.
Still, they are still available – on eBay, on Amazon and on Pens and Leather, and in sales and swap groups if you keep your eyes out and check regularly.
The Filofax exotic binders are all made in the USA so the skins are farmed, not hunted. It is fairly easy to get ostrich leather into most countries, lizard is usually also okay, but with alligator (even farmed alligator) you need to get a permit in many countries (including Sweden). Retailers who sell alligator in restrictive countries have to have a permit to sell them.
I always lusted after the cognac alligator filofax in personal size. Was always the ONE I would buy if I had an inheritance or as a particularly highly earned reward for completing some difficult project. So sad to see that they seem to be totally gone. Filofax has systematically discontinued almost their entire product line. They had nothing particularly compelling on offer in 2013 and if you wanted to buy a filofax right now there is almost nothing to choose from in their online catalogs. Very sad.
I totally agree. The cognac alligator was lovely – I saw one reduced on sale at our local department store but it was still hugely expensive because of the import fee.
I remember seeing a post from you about the Buttercup being on offer at NK Stockholm and as it would be my ultimate favourite Filofax I tried to access the store online but they don’t seem to sell online. Is that correct? Thanks
No they don’t sell online, unfortunately.
They have a Buttercup pocket left but the 70% off price is, unfortunately, what you would pay at Pens and Leather and Amazon, due to the high import duty that had to be paid when importing from the US. Also, these Filofaxes are from the early nineties which is either a good thing (brand new vintage and from Filofax’s glory days when things were really well made) or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.
Thanks for clarifying that – brand new vintage = good in my opinion but cost the same as Amazon etc is not worth my while I don’t think.
I agree – not unless you cannot get them anywhere else.