Flashback to 2006. I’m flipping through Vogue and singularly fascinated with one fashion campaign. Daria Werbowy shot by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel on the streets of New York City. Werbowy is wearing the brand’s classic tweed done up in a white dress trimmed with pearls, but the real hero piece is the iconic bag: Chanel’s 2.55 reissue.
The style had come out the year before that shoot, and what really got me was the history of it, a throwback to the original version designed by Coco Chanel herself. The 2.55 stands for February 1955, its initial debut. Unlike other Chanel flap bags, it has a unique chain strap sans leather, and instead of an interlocking CC clasp, a “mademoiselle lock”—named so because Coco Chanel never married. And my favorite part: a hidden zipper compartment in the back where Coco would store her love letters.
Fast-forward to a summer sometime later, when I was living in Paris and, after years of obsessing over the bag, finally got one for myself. An investment, yes. But a great one. Of every bag in my closet, this is the one I carry with me everywhere, pack on every trip, will have for more years to come, and even wore to my very first Chanel show a few months ago. I consider it my best investment piece yet.
When I became enamored with the bag
Back in 2006 when Karl Lagerfeld shot Daria Werbowy carrying the 2.55 reissue bag for the Chanel campaign. I still think about these images all the time.
When I finally had my own
A snap of me wearing my bag during Paris Fashion Week last season. This is the only bag I packed, and I wore it to every single show, meeting, and dinner.
This is the bag I own. Chanel’s bags are known to appreciate, and they really do. I paid a third of the current price for my bag when I originally bought it.
Shop my edit of Chanel 2.55 bags
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