The Iconic Hermes Constance Bag Gets a Facelift
We know that Edward VIII was a certified dandy, but perhaps he was even more of an OG fashion influencer than we think. When Emile-Maurice Hermès, the grandson of the founder of Hermès, began to work for the family business, one of his early tasks in 1918 was to outfit the Prince of Wales with a new golf jacket equipped with a zipper.
At the time Hermès had exclusive rights to use the zipper for leather goods, and the prince was high-profile enough to deserve such a distinction. One might assume that from this interaction the prince took a liking to French fashion, and a recent discovery suggests that Hermès may have also left a sartorial imprint on the United Kingdom.
A new version of the Constance bag—which was propelled to fame by Jackie Kennedy and is part of Hermès’s “Holy Trinity” of handbags (the others being the Kelly and Birkin)—looks fit for Balmoral Castle. Its bubblegum-pink canvas is covered with a multicolored tartan, a pattern that has historically been woven into the wardrobes of British bluebloods.
The motifs used for the updated Constance were taken from a book in Emile-Maurice’s collection, which is conserved at the house’s Paris flagship on Rue Saint-Honoré. The result? Two former rival nations bound by a bit of shared history.
This story appears in the October 2024 issue of Town & Country, with the headline "Anatomy of a Classic".
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