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The 2.55 Chanel handbag, so named because it was introduced in February of 1955, was not the first handbag Coco Chanel designed, but it has become the designer's most recognized purse. Made of quilted leather and hung from a shoulder-length...
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The 2.55 Chanel handbag, so named because it was introduced in February of 1955, was not the first handbag Coco Chanel designed, but it has become the designer's most recognized purse. Made of quilted leather and hung from a shoulder-length chain, the 2.55 features a flap that folds over the top of the bag (inside are three pockets) and is secured by what's known as a Mademoiselle Lock, although updates on the bag have featured the fashion house's double-C logo on the clasp. Of course, the 2.55 is hardly the only vintage Chanel out there for handbag enthusiasts, just as leather is hardly the only material used by the Parisian fashion house. Chanel clutches, purses, backpacks, briefcases, and shoulder bags have been produced in velvet, alligator, and lizard, while the leathers range from soft lambskin to a pebbled leather called caviar. As with Chanel’s restrained suits of the 1950s, which were a response to the yards and yards of fabric Christian Dior heaped on women with his New Look, Chanel’s purses were also designed to free women from the tyranny of fashion. Specifically, her shoulder bags were intended to leave the wearer’s hands free, so that a woman could keep her essential items close at hand without having to continually grasp a handbag or purse. That these bags were also stylish was simply a given. Even before Coco Chanel’s death in 1971, the company that bore her name experimented quite a bit with the basic Chanel bag, from its materials to its colors and shapes. Beyond black, Chanel bags were produced in tan, burgundy, navy, and even hot pink, while materials included everything from favorite Chanel materials such as jersey to patchworks of multi-colored suede. Even the quilting evolved, with stitches sometimes presented in concentric, circular rows; as “V”s to follow the shape of a flap; or as stitched echoes of the Chanel double-C logo. After the Chanel’s death, Karl Lagerfeld took over the firm in 1983 as its creative director, a post...
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