Chain Gang
By Kate Betts
Fall 2005 Style & Design
It's been five decades since Coco Chanel denounced handbags without
shoulder straps and ordered her brilliant leather designer, Albert
Monnot, to attach a gold chain to her purses so she could wear them
messenger style. That first bag—called the 2.55, after the date it was
created—had other unique details, namely its double-C clasp and
quilting. Many have tried to copy it, and the house of Chanel has
reinvented it several times since the 1970s, when it was turned out in
tweed. The latest model, the New Mademoiselle, takes after a version
Chanel carried in the '60s.
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