My Chanel Story

Chanel 2.55 Classic Flap Bag

This Chanel 2.55 was my first step into the world of luxury brands. 

The myth surrounding the story is that I had been saving up for ages and finally bought this bag with my first ever pay check to mark and celebrate my financial independence. This is partly true (I did spend my first pay check on this bag), but really the purchase was far from planned. 

It was a warm summer afternoon in NYC when I chanced upon the Chanel store in Soho. Its pristine white and cream interiors looked very enticing and I was simply curious about this brand that seemed to wield such a powerful hold over all my female counterparts. But little did I know what was in store for me when I stepped into that Chanel boutique. The woman who sold me the bag was a middle-aged Russian lady with wild auburn curls and a joie de vivre that is hard to forget. In response to my usual 'just browsing', she said instead, 'why not you take a look at our latest Chanel handbag?'

With a mixed Eastern European-American accent, she explained the entire history of the bag. Gabrielle Chanel was the name and in the 1930s, she took inspiration from the straps on soldiers' bags to invent the first ever shoulder bag. This famous quilted diamond design? Inspired by stable boys' jackets. The intertwining chain straps? The caretakers of the convent Gabrielle grew up at hold keys at their waist dangling from the same type of chain. And the rich burgundy lining? The colour of the uniforms at the convent. And see this secret zippered compartment at the inside of the front flap? This is where she hid her love letters. And there is another one on the back outside flap for secret cash. And this version of the 2.55 is even more special because instead of the double CC logo, it retains from the original design what is known as the 'Mademoiselle Lock'. Oh and why 2.55? The bag reached the height of its popularity in February 1955. 

I was fascinated and more, I desperately wanted to possess it. So I ended up coughing out the $3000-something price for it, brought it home to my bedside and woke up every morning for the next month to admire its beauty. You see, what I took home was not just a good quality leather bag, I took with me a piece of history. And this history is made richer by the modern-day Chanel fiction conjured by Nicole Kidman, Keira Knightley and Audrey Tautou. Subsequently, the release of 'Coco before Chanel' starring one of my favourite actresses air-kissed away any cognitive dissonance.  

Therein lies the power of Chanel's supreme branding. Transcending any mainstream marketing strategies, Chanel tells a story and entices consumers to buy into it. And that story is told through the customer's first step into its stores, a highly effective sales force, an insert retelling the Chanel story that comes with every 2.55, advertisements that use celebrities not just as endorsements but to provide further soundbites and imagery for the Chanel story and finally a full-fledged collaboration with Hollywood.  

When I presented the bag to my mum, she said I had been conned by that Russian lady's sales gimmicks. You paid $3000-what for a bag with... 'history'? But the truth is, I am not concerned if it turns out that the history of the 2.55 was but a fiction made up by Karl Lagerfeld or if 'Coco before Chanel' was indeed 'Hollywood-ised'. What was important to me was that the bag evoked images of the woman I wanted to be and a world I wanted to be in and it probably does the same for so many other women who buy into the Chanel story. All that with one bag? Yes, provided the bag is backed with a story that is so compelling and so cleverly told.