Watermelon Crescent Clutch — Red

Judith Leiber founded her house in 1963 and built it on novelty minaudières, and the fruit shapes are where that habit turns funny. The house's Slice Watermelon is a closed wedge, listed at 3.5 by 5.5 inches and 4 inches deep, an object you hold like a small sculpture. The Crescent does something else. It keeps the curve of the fruit and drops the bulk: a half-moon only 2 inches deep that rides flat against the body. Same joke, told in profile instead of volume, and far less literal than the wedge.

The body is paved by hand in red, emerald-green and clear crystal, with crystal seeds standing in for the pips, all set into a silver-tone metal frame. The clasp sits at the top and is itself crystal-set, so the closure disappears into the pavé rather than interrupting it. The interior is lined and fitted with a single slip pocket sized for a card or a lipstick. A detachable silver-tone chain strap clips on when you want it crossbody and comes off when you want a clutch. It measures 3.5 inches high, 6.25 wide and 2 deep, and it was made in Italy.

Read it as a brooch that learned to carry things: costume jewelry in structure, minaudière in function, with a fruit-stand pun running underneath. The red-and-green palette gives it away from across a room, while the shallow body keeps it from becoming a novelty box. It suits black tie better than it suits a picnic. One size.