HISTORY OF COCO CHANEL LADY HANDBAG
HISTORY OF COCO CHANEL LADY HANDBAG
COMELY HANDBAG
The understated clothes of the Parisian couturier Coco Chanel (1883-1971)
Revolutionized modern 1920s fashion. The inventor of the little black dress, she also brought a new, relaxed elegance to informal clothes.
Influenced by the sporting gard of her aristocratic English lover, the Duke of Westminster, she popularized the cardigan and the use of wool jersey in a subtle color palette of navy, taupe and cream, and introduced trousers into her collections.
This relaxed, informal approach to fashion also applied to the handbag. She reportedly told her friend Claude Delay that because she was “sick and tired of holding my handbags and losing them, I stuck a strap on them and wore them across my shoulder.
This design evolved into one of the most significant fashion items of the twentieth century, the 2.55 bag, name for the month and the year of itscreation, and requiring 180 different processes in its manufacture.
Inspired by the checked shirts of racetrack stable boys, the quilted jersey or leather bag hung from a long gold chain interlaced with leather, and featured a rectangular gold plated lock.
The interlocked-Cs logo was stitched onto the lining. Three flap pockets made up its solid, rectangular shape: the first in the shape of a tube for lipstick, the second zipped and the third for papers and letters.