I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know much about Chanel whatsoever. I know...the shame! I like the bags just like the next girl, but never really been too interested in them. Last weekend, my sis and I visited the Sak's Chanel shop-in-shop pretending we were rich girls just to play dress up for a few minutes. {If you've never done this--try it! It's so fun! } While asking to see the gray clutch behind the counter, we got a quick little lesson that I had to share. Some of you might already know this so you're welcome to say "duh!" at any point while reading this.
There are two classic Chanel models that are used in creating variations over and over, each and every season. The Classic Flap is the most popular with its famous CC on the closure and leather intertwined in the chain handles. The Reissue has the original "Mademoiselle" lock {name comes from the fact that Coco Chanel never married}, and the regular chain handles. The Classic Flap's interlocking CC closure was introduced in the 1980s with Karl Lagerfeld's variation, making the Mademoiselle lock much more vintage and just plain old cool in my opinion. Coco Chanel grew up in an orphanage and she took a lot of inspiration from there to create handbags: the chain link straps are similar to those that the caretakers would use to dangle keys from their waist, the red color on the inside was the same color of the children's uniforms, etc. You can read lots more about the differences in the two styles here.
Catching these little tidbits of history makes me more interested in learning more about the fashion house. Hey, it also almost made me want to spend a whole mortgage payment on an "investment piece" but then I snapped right back into reality... Here are a few of my most favorite Chanel bags I played with. As you can see, the Mademoiselle locks won my heart.
