Far removed from the conventional feminine clichés, the Boy Chanel bag is immediately seductive and unmistakably different. Its ambivalent design has a hint of the androgynous woman and opens the way to a new kind of appeal. “Do the right thing at the right moment,” Mademoiselle Chanel used to say.

Worn as a shoulder or across-the-body bag, the Boy Chanel boldly asserts its difference, yet at the same time it is firmly rooted in tradition. Karl Lagerfeld suggests this with a new interpretation of boyish charm. “Chanel used men’s underwear to make dresses; she had this boyish attitude, in fact it is the very spirit of Chanel. She got it from Boy Capel, the great love of her life, which, incidentally, explains why the new bag is called the Boy Chanel.”

This famous duality is a fundamental part of the bag, which is inspired by a cartridge bag that was originally made for hunters and was carried by the fashion visionary herself.

The design of the Boy Chanel bag confirms CHANEL’s clean lines and characteristic traits; it is discreet, faintly mannish, worn in two ways, with a large chain of large round links in metal or burnished ruthenium, a rectangular flap and overstitched graphic bands of mattressing. On the front, the six letters of the legendary CHANEL name appear in subtle relief. The closure has a hint of constructivism playing with the contrast between silvered and aged gold metal, and the double C forms the clasp at the centre of the circle.

Using the simple elegance of glazed calfskin, the Boy Chanel bag is produced in three sizes, the smallest being a purse and the largest a tote. Its palette of colours is delicate yet powerful: flat red, deep black, intense grey, lead green and brilliant ivory.

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