Hermes Kelly Pochette Handmade In Lizard Leather from South Africa Gold Hardware 89 Noir

Lizard in black is the version that behaves like jewellery: nearly matte scales running in tight rows, with gold at the front and the handle. Nobody reads the texture from two metres away, but they notice that the surface is not calf.

At 22 cm by 12 cm by 7 cm, the pochette takes a phone, a cardholder, keys and a lipstick with the flap sitting flat, and it carries nothing bulky. The single handle fits over the wrist, so I can hold a plate at a party and keep the bag off the floor.

Black lizard is a firmer, drier skin than black calf, and that shows in two ways. It holds the bag’s architecture perfectly, and it needs moisture to stay that way, because neglected lizard cracks at the fold lines. I give mine a thin conditioning once a year and keep it in its dust bag rather than on an open shelf.

For evenings when I want black that is not simply black, this is the piece I choose.

What a black lizard pochette is not: invisible. The texture reads at close range, and anyone who knows leather notices it immediately, which is rather the point of the skin. For dinners, gallery openings and any evening with low light, this is the black bag I take, and it needs no other detail to work, which is why I would buy it again.