Kelly Bag
| Photo of Grace Kelly with a Hermès bag, after which the bag is said to have been renamed "Kelly Bag" |
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| 1956 |
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Link to the picture |
The Kelly Bag is a handbag made by hand since 1935 by the luxury fashion brand Hermès , which has been named after the actress and princess of Monaco Grace Kelly since 1956 . The bag is a classic of fashion design and is still produced in numerous variants today. It is considered to be one of the most famous women's handbag models and stands for nobility and restrained good taste.
history
The company Hermès , which at the time specialized in saddles, saddlebags and luggage, brought out the later Kelly Bag in 1935 as "Petit Sac Haut à Courroies" (or "Sac à dépêches pour dames") - as a small counterpart to the well-known travel bags from Hermès. At first the bag was not a best seller, but it remained in the range for a long time.
The handbag only gained greater fame through the American actress Grace Kelly. On the day of her engagement to the Prince of Monaco in early 1956, Grace Kelly was photographed with a “Petit Sac Haut à Courroies”, the photo was widely used. In the autumn of the same year, the now pregnant Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco since April 1956, traveled to the USA. On this trip she carried different handbags. This gave rise to the myth that the princess used a black crocodile skin copy to cover up her pregnancy. Legend has it that a photo of the pregnant princess with the black Hermès bag even appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine. In fact, such a cover never appeared, but the myth spread and the bag was increasingly associated with Grace Kelly. Hermès responded and renamed the model Kelly Bag .
Kelly Bags are sold new, depending on the leather and metal used, for prices between $ 4,500 and $ 80,000 and usually achieve comparably high resale prices at auctions, even if these are usually well below the proceeds for Birkin Bags .
design
The Kelly Bag designed by John Dumas consists of a leather body with a trapezoidal shape that tapers towards the top and a rectangular base. The individual parts are either put together in such a way that the leather just protrudes outwards at the seams, which results in very straight and clear edges, or they are made with internal seams that are invisible from the outside, but form less severe edges. The side walls of the bag are folded inwards once when closed, so that it tapers flat at the top but can be opened wide. The short, arched handle with which the Kelly Bag is worn on the arm is movably connected to the flap via metal rings and is folded back when the bag is opened.
The flap is fluted right and left at its lower end - here the fastening belt sewn on the back and guided through the folds of the side walls grips over the flap, which is closed in the middle of the flap and thus the front of the bag with the flap and firmly connects to the fastening belt. The bag stands on four small metal feet, which are attached in the corners on the underside. Inside, the bag has one or more inner compartments, depending on the design. Each bag has a small padlock, the key of which is provided with a matching key case (“clochette”) and attached to a leather strap that can be looped around the handle of the bag.
The Kelly Bag is available in six sizes (20, 25, 28, 32, 35 and 40 cm) from various exotic and domestic leather types, such as crocodile, alligator, buffalo, lizard and ostrich leather, from shark skin or from calf, Cow or goat leather produced. Occasionally Hermès varies the classic materials, so at the beginning of the 1990s a Silk Scarf Kelly Bag was created , which consisted of the silk scarves also produced by Hermès, or in 2000 the Kelly Doll , in which the bag with the face and attached arms and legs into one Doll was transformed. At the beginning of 2011 Hermès launched the Kelly Picnic Bag , a new variant of the Kelly Bag with a body made of wicker with a leather flap. The Picnic Kelly was advertised by Hermès with photographs of "edible" Kelly Bags, which, based on the paintings of Arcimboldo , showed shapes and details of the Kelly Bag made from food.
A design variant produced as early as 1960 is the Kelly Sport Bag , which has a higher, slimmer basic shape without a flap and is provided with a shoulder strap.
Manufacturing
Each Kelly Bag is hand-sewn by a single bag maker in 18 to 24 hours. The structure of the leather is precisely taken into account in order to bring out the natural pattern on the individual parts as best as possible. First the goatskin lining is made, then the bottom and side parts are connected to one another, whereby each stitch is first pricked with an awl and then carried out with waxed thread. The hand-shaped handle is treated with hot wax to protect against moisture and connected to the characteristic flap, which is then sewn onto the body of the bag. After the metal parts have been attached, which are also riveted by hand, the entire bag is ironed to smooth out creases in the leather.
Kelly design reception
The best-known further development of the “Kelly Bag Design” comes from Hermès itself: the Birkin Bag , developed in 1984, takes up both the basic shape of the bag and the characteristic flap and fastening belt. Unlike the Kelly , the Birkin has two handles that are attached to the sides. The Birkin can be worn on the handles even when the flap is open. The basic form of the Birkin is also a little less strict than that of the Kelly.
Direct derivatives of the Kelly design by Hermès are the Kelly Watch, a wristwatch with a case designed in the shape of the padlock on the handbag, the Kelly 2 Watch - a wristwatch with a leather watch strap based on the closure belt of the Kelly Bag (2011), the Kelly Longue Wallet , a clutch bag with the characteristic flap and fastening belt (around 2005), as well as the almost identical Kelly Pochette , which differs from the clutch mainly in the flat handle attached to leather loops, and a muff in Kelly design.
Other manufacturers also use the Kelly design. The simple basic shape of a handbag carried on the arm with a flap and handle has meanwhile advanced to the classic basic shape of the handbag design. A current interpretation of this basic shape is, for example, the Mulberry Postman's Lock Satchel , which, in addition to the flap and handle, also uses the small leather key clochette.
literature
- Kristina Haugland: Grace Kelly Style. Fashion for Hollywood's Princess . V & A Publishing, 2010, p. 70. In this publication Haugland dispels the common myth that Grace Kelly used her bag to hide her pregnancy.
- Kristina Haugland: Grace Kelly: Icon of Style to Royal Bride. Yale University Press, 2006.
- Abigail Rutherford: Warman's Handbags Field Guide: Values and Identification . Krause Publications, 2009, pp. 194ff, ISBN 9781440202391 .
Web links
- History of the Kelly Bag
- Hermès Kelly Picnic Bag campaign
- Steps in the production of a Kelly Bag
- “Deconstructing” a Kelly Bag
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c The Hermès Kelly Purse Charisma . Retrieved on January 13, 2012. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Grace Kelly's Forever Look . Retrieved January 22, 2012.
- ↑ Kristina Haugland: Grace Kelly Style. Fashion for Hollywood's Princess . V & A Publishing, 2010, p. 70.
- ↑ The Comebag . Archived from the original on December 9, 2011. Retrieved December 17, 2011.
- ↑ a b c History of the Hermes Kelly Bag and Grace Kelly . Retrieved December 17, 2011.
- ↑ Hermès . Retrieved December 17, 2011.
- ↑ http://www.merchantivory.com/news-usatoday.html
- ↑ http://www.christies.com/presscenter/pdf/2011/elegance_handbags_textiles_costumes_fans_jewellery_hermes_south_kensington_16112011.pdf
- ↑ Kelly Bag Birth of Myth . Retrieved January 15, 2012.
- ↑ Birkin or Kelly Bag | Haute Edition . In: Shop Le Monde . September 21, 2016 ( haute-edition.com [accessed May 3, 2017]).
- ↑ Hermès Grace Kelly Handbag. In: theiamagazine.com. May 16, 2010, archived from the original on November 4, 2012 ; accessed on December 15, 2015 .
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5280906
- ↑ http://thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com/post/6522081091/submission-the-famous-kelly-bag-by-iconic
- ↑ http://pursuitist.com/style/hermes-kelly-2-watch/
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Amanda Mull: Mulberry does its very own version of the Kelly . In: www.purseblog.com . December 14, 2011. Archived from the original on January 8, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
