15 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE CHANEL 2.55

 
“Stella, Stella, look, mommy has a new bag!” My daughter happily ran at our nanny with my Matelassé. “Bel sweetie, why don’t you just leave the bag,” I stammered. Slightly embarrassed to flaunt a bag that, let’s be honest here, easily represents two month’s wages. “But MOM,” my four year old (I mean, four!) continued, “it’s SJA-NÉL isn’t it!”

Chanel is celebrating this month. The 2.55 has been in our lives for fifty years this month and that’s reason to celebrate because it has great historic and cultural value. And it still opens every door for you. Why is it so special, you ask? Have you got a minute?

Coco Chanel invented this bag with a chain strap because it would free up her hands for a cigarette and a glass.

The famous chain strap is inspired by the belts from which the nuns suspended their keys. Little Coco (still called Gabriëlle at the time) spent her childhood years in an orphanage led by nuns. This, too, is a fact my daughter remembers well. I once told a friend about an adopted girl who had been in a Chinese orphanage when my girl interrupted me. “Coco Chanel was in an orphanage as well. While her father was still alive. That is just sooo sad!”

The 2.55 has a secret compartment in which Coco kept her love letters.
The bag’s lining is red. Some say it was inspired by her school uniform, others that red is a great colour to find your lipstick in your purse.

The matelassé design was borrowed from equestrian sports. Coco loved horses and was one of the first women who sat astride her horse.
Every 2.55 represents 18 hours of work.

Six to fifteen people work on the bag.

180 steps are required to create the end product.
If you want to be sure you have the real thing, the bag must have a carte d’authenticité with a number corresponding with the number in the bag.
Queen Máxima uses a 2.55, as do Simone Dernee, Jetteke van Lexmond and Miley Cyrus.

Fans van het eerste uur waren Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor en Marlene Dietrich.

The main difference between the Matelassé (my own bag) and the 2.55 is the lock. The one on the 2.55 is slightly more sober, making the bag more of a statement in the fashion world. It doesn´t scream “Chanel”, which of course makes it super chic.

A fun detail is that the Cs on the lock are crossed in a specific way, the right-hand C being superimposed on the left-hand C.

The 2.55’s price rises 15% every year and it doesn’t depreciate (if you take care of it) so my advice is: save for it and buy it, it’s a better investment than having your money gather interest in the bank – plus it’s a lot more fun.

The 2.55 is the most iconic bag in Fashion Land. No one thinks it’s stupid, it always looks good, from hip to classic. It is always just right.