There’s no mistaking this bag for anything but a Chanel creation, and even today, under the care of current creative director Virginie Viard, the bag maintains its towering status. Lagerfeld threaded leather through the gold chain strap and swapped the elegant rectangular closer for those double Cs, and now, the bag comes in finished leather, calf leather, pebbled calf leather (dubbed “caviar”), square or chevron quilting, tweed, and other varieties. Relatively minor interventions were made to the bag, but they were enough to make the 11.12 (known as the Classic Flap until earlier this year) one of the most coveted purses in fashion history. Following Gabrielle’s death in 1971 and a lull in the brand’s influence, Karl Lagerfeld claimed the reins of the fashion house in 1983 and in an attempt to rekindle its old spark, he introduced his take on the 2.55.
Here, 11.12 refers to the bag’s style code, A01112 its actual origins have a longer story. Though you’d be forgiven for assuming that this bag debuted in November of 2012, that’s not the case. (Her rearing with the sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary in Aubazine, France, stopped short, however: It’s believed that Gabrielle’s frequent dalliances with aristo men introduced her to jersey fabric, then a textile for men’s undergarments.) As it so famously goes, her Catholic orphanage upbringing instilled in her a unique appreciation for the austerity of the ecclesiastical garb of nuns. Though she’s best known for her nubby bouclé jackets, she started off making accessories-hats, to be exact-at a millinery shop on Paris’s Rue Cambon. A symbol of luxurious, refined fashion, the company, founded in 1910 is famed all around the world for its haute couture creations and lines of perfume, like the ultra-famous N★. In 1909 the House of Chanel was born, founded by the elegant yet swashbuckling Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. No brand embodies French-style chic better than Chanel. This went on for about a century and a half before Gabrielle Chanel came along and thought, Can’t a girl get something hands-free? And thus, the chain-strapped crossbody bag came into fashion. By the end of the century, however, narrow neo-classical silhouettes could no longer camouflage a pocket, so it became a visible purse: a pochette with looped handles. For the society ladies of Western Europe in the 18th century, bags were effectively pockets, detached from garments and worn around the waist with a band beneath layers of skirt. To appreciate the history of Chanel handbags, one has to start with the origins of the purse itself.
0 kommentar(er)
