The Kelly bag (formerly known as the Sac à main de Voyage) is a

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...

handbag A handbag, commonly known as a purse in North American English, is a handled medium-to-large bag used to carry personal items. It has also been called a pocketbook in parts of the U.S. Terminology The term "purse" originally referred to a smal ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

-based, high-fashion luxury-goods manufacturer

Hermès Hermès International S.A. ( , ) is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house established in 1837. It specializes in leather goods, silk goods, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear. Since the ...

. The bag was redesigned several times before it was popularized by and then named after the American actress and Monégasque princess

Grace Kelly Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982), also known as Grace of Monaco, was an American actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III from their marriage on April 18, 1956, until her death in 1982. ...

. The bag is now an expensive

status symbol A status symbol is a visible, external symbol of one's social position, an indicator of Wealth, economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status symbols. ''Status symbol'' is also a Sociology, sociological term – as part ...

Design

The Kelly bag is a trapezium closed around the mouth with two horizontal straps. Four studs on the bottom, which is made of three layers of leather, enable it to stand on the ground. It is sold in eight sizes, ranging from to . The padlock, keys and hardware are made of white or yellow gold. The later Kelly II bag is available in two distinct styles, as was its predecessor, the Kelly. The ''sellier'' style is a rigid construction including a stiffening layer between the outer leather and inner lining, with the side and bottom stitching clearly visible; the ''retourné'' style is a softer construction, wherein the bag is sewn and then turned inside-out, hiding the exterior side stitching. The Kelly II, released in 2000 as an update to the original Kelly, has a double ring at the top handle, designed to attach to a shoulder strap; the original Kelly, while often fitted with a shoulder strap, had a single-ring design. The Kelly bag requires 18 to 25 hours of

handicraft A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid material ...

to make, with each item created by a single artisan. By the mid-1990s, a Kelly bag was priced at , and as of 2019 prices ranged from to , with exotic leathers priced higher.

History

"...created in 1938 and called the ''Haut à Courroie''..."

In 1923, Émile-Maurice Hermès and

Ettore Bugatti Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti (15 September 1881 – 21 August 1947) was a Franco-Italian automobile designer and manufacturer. He received French citizenship in 1946 and is remembered as the founder and proprietor of the automobile manufacturing c ...

designed a simple and plain bag for Hermès's wife Julie, named after Bugatti. The Bugatti was the first bag designed by Hermès specifically as a women's handbag and is notable for being the first handbag to utilize a zipper pull. In 1935, Hermès's son-in-law Robert Dumas redesigned it as a spacious travel bag called Sac à main de Voyage. It was a sharp contrast to the dominant handbags of the time, which were simple, small and flat, resembling envelopes.

Association with Grace Kelly

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

has been credited with bringing the handbag into the limelight. In 1954, Hitchcock allowed the costume designer

Edith Head Edith Claire Head (née Posener, October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American film costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973, making he ...

to purchase Hermès accessories for the film ''

To Catch a Thief '' To Catch a Thief'' is a 1955 American romantic thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, from a screenplay by John Michael Hayes based on the 1952 To Catch a Thief (novel), novel of the same name by David Dodge (novelist), David Dodge. The ...

'', starring

. According to Head, Kelly "fell in love" with the bag. In 1956, she became Princess of Monaco and was photographed using the handbag to shield her growing belly from the paparazzi during her first pregnancy. That photograph was featured in ''

Life magazine ''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly publi ...

''. Princess Grace was a fashion icon, and the handbag immediately became very popular, becoming known as the Kelly bag, although not officially so-named until 1977. The handbag with which Princess Grace was photographed was loaned by the palace archives of Monaco and displayed in the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

in April 2010, along with other notable wardrobe items owned by the princess. The "star exhibit" of the show has scuffs and marks, as the wardrobe-thrifty princess carried it for many years. , Hermès made 32 styles of handbags, of which the Kelly was the best-seller.

In popular culture

A Kelly bag stars as the "character" Bagwati in the Bollywood Hindi film ''

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara ''Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'' (), is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language Road movie, road comedy drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under Excel Entertainment. The film stars an ensemble cast of Hrithik ...

''.

References

External links

* {{cite magazine , last1=Groat , first1=Jon , last2=Betker , first2=Ally , date=5 September 2012 , title=Watch the Making of an Hermès Kelly Bag , url=http://nymag.com/thecut/2012/09/watch-the-making-of-an-hermes-kelly-bag.html , magazine=

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...