The House Icon ~ Quilted Flap Purse

The quilted flap purse was launched in February 1955, hence 2.55, after the re-opening of the couture house. Coming out of retirement at 71, Coco Chanel designed it herself with women in mind. Mademoiselle Chanel wanted their hands free and so she outfitted the bag with double chains that can easily be slung onto the shoulder or the crook of the arm.
It is said that these chains resemble those that were used by nuns as key holders at that time when Chanel was growing up in an orphanage. Also, the leather quilting was inspired from jockey's coats, an influence from the days of living in Royallieu, the country estate of her then lover, Etienne Balsan who was a horse racing aficionado. The purse has a zippered compartment on the inside of the front flap supposedly for Chanel's illicit love letters and an outside pocket for extra cash. This basic design has undergone several incarnations with regards to materials used, the chain with or without interwoven leather and of course the closure. In the 1980's, CHANEL's creative director Karl Lagerfeld introduced the interlocking CC closure and those 2.55 have come to be known as the "Classic Flap".
In 2005, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the epic bag, he revived the "mademoiselle" rectangular closure and the 2.55 was christened the "Reissue" closely resembling the original as Coco Chanel designed it. Technically this term can only be applied to those produced primarily for that year but for convenience, CHANEL fans everywhere have termed the Reissue as those with the rectangular lock and the interlocking CC as the Classic.