When photojournalist Dennis Stock snapped Grace Kelly meticulously wiping an Hermès leather purse in her dressing room during the filming of “High Society,” he didn’t know he was capturing not one but two stars.
In 1955, the silver screen siren was at the height of her career and this would be her final role before becoming Princess of Monaco.
Meanwhile, the bag had yet to begin its ascent, although it was regularly pictured with the actress, who is thought to have purchased it that year.
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A permanent part of the French brand’s collections for two decades, it became “the classic Hermès bag with a signature key and padlock,” as WWD wrote in 1973. “But nothing much ever happened to it until Grace Kelly sailed off to marry Prince Rainier,” bag in hand.
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The purse further catapulted to fame when the now-royal used one to shield her first pregnancy, as captured by Life magazine. A couple of years later, Hermès gave her name to the model.
More than the birth of an iconic product, Stock’s photograph “expresses marvelously well the connection that forms between an Hermès client and their object,” said Guillaume de Seynes, Hermès International’s executive vice president, manufacturing division and equity investments. “That’s why repairs are so important for us [and we have] over 130 craftspeople dedicated to it around the world.”
A Kelly bag in black smooth Box leather with gold hardware — and 20 years’ worth of patina — is “an absolutely sublime object that has accompanied a woman in her life, like this one accompanied the princess of Monaco throughout hers,” he added.
What is now known as the Hermès Kelly is also how craftspeople test their mettle in the French company’s leather-goods training program, which lasts 18 months. “It’s the one that concentrates the highest number of essential know-hows, which is why it’s the model we train on,” de Seynes told WWD. “And no craftsperson makes their first handle right.”
The design was imagined in 1935 by Robert Dumas, the always-dapper son-in-law of Emile Hermès who was “very creative, always with a pencil in hand,” continued the executive, who is one of Dumas’ grandchildren.
Over the decades, numerous variations have been created, playing on size, proportions and placement of its features, as seen in the 2022 “Kelly en Désordre” and its quasi-cubist take. The Kellydoll bag, with a smiley face, even appeared in 2000.
“When we create a new Kelly for the collections, we always try to think as freely as possible,” said Priscila Alexander Spring, the brand’s creative director of leather goods. “It’s about having fun and approaching design in a very playful [way].”
Its distinctive features also appear as bracelets, sneaker fastenings, inspired the 1975 introduction of the padlock-shaped Kelly watch, hanging off a turnlock bracelet, and the Kelly Calèche perfume launched in 2007. Creative director of shoes and jewelry Pierre Hardy made diamond-set gold versions in 2012 for the brand’s second fine jewelry offering.
“So the Kelly and all its signature details — really, its entire aesthetic — has also inspired other métiers,” said de Seynes.