Silver Tote Bag

The ridges down the center were once somebody's back.

This tote bag is alligator with silver hardware, in a gray that suits the animal's natural armor. Alligator has been a luxury leather for handbags for generations, valued for its strength and for scales that no two skins repeat in the same way. The center of the bag keeps a raised spine of horned ridges and a knobbed cluster near the top, with larger square scales at the sides. Two rounded handles join on small silver rings. Fourteen and a half inches long and ten high, size L.

It was tougher in its earlier career.