One file per model: documented history, construction, hardware, and the date-code doctrine. No prices, no listings feed — the file reads the same in ten years, and a date code is not authentication.
| MODEL | INTRODUCED | WHY IT MATTERS |
|---|---|---|
| Chanel 2.55 (Original) | 1955 | The bag that started the modern handbag |
| Chanel Classic Flap (Medium) | c. 1983 | THE Chanel |
| Chanel 2.55 Reissue (226) | 2005 | The fiftieth-anniversary return of the original |
| Louis Vuitton Keepall (55) | c. 1924 | The bag that ended the trunk era |
| Louis Vuitton Speedy (30) | c. 1930 | Born in 1930 as the Express |
| Louis Vuitton Speedy (25) | c. 1959 | The Audrey Hepburn size |
| Louis Vuitton Neverfull (MM) | 2007 | The 2007 tote that became the default luxury bag of its era |
| Hermès Kelly (28) | c. 1935 | Born the Sac à dépêches around 1935 (some histories say 1928) and renamed in 1977 for the princess who used it to shield her pregnancy from photographers in a 1956 photograph seen around the world |
| Hermès Birkin (30) | 1984 | Sketched on an Air France flight in 1984 after Jane Birkin's basket spilled |
| Gucci Bamboo 1947 (Small) | 1947 | Born of postwar material shortage |
| Gucci Jackie 1961 (Medium) | c. 1961 | Born in the 1950s as the Fifties Constance and remade by fame in 1961, when Jacqueline Kennedy was photographed using hers to shield herself from paparazzi |
| Dior Lady Dior (Medium) | 1995 | The bag that was renamed twice |
| Dior Saddle | 1999 | Galliano's equestrian provocation for the Spring 2000 show became the defining Y2K it-bag, went quiet for a decade, and returned in 2018 to open the archive-revival era the whole industry then copied |
| Prada Vela Backpack | 1984 | The bag that made industrial fabric a luxury object: Miuccia Prada's 1984 nylon backpack, sold unbranded in a marketplace of gilded leather, took a decade to become an it bag and then rewrote what the word meant |
| Prada Re-Edition 2005 | 2019 | The revival that led the Y2K wave: the discontinued mini hobo reissued in 2019 with a chain, a pouch, and archival year names |
| Prada Galleria | 2007 | The structured saffiano flagship, named for the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II arcade where Mario Prada opened the first shop in 1913 |
| Balenciaga First | c. 2001 | The bag Balenciaga's executives rejected: shown on the Fall 2001 runway as the Le Dix Motorcycle Lariat, saved by Kate Moss, first produced as a run of 25 |
| Balenciaga City | c. 2002 | The definitive it bag of the 2000s |
| Balenciaga Le City | 2024 | The 2024 revival, launched back into Kate Moss's hands: more polished and less punk than the original, and the fourth dormant-years comeback in this site's files |
| Fendi Baguette | 1997 | The bag credited with inventing the It bag: designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi in 1997, immortalized on Sex and the City in 2000, relaunched in 2019 |
| Fendi Spy | 2005 | The boho-era grail: 2005, secret compartments and rope-woven handles, a short production run that ended with the era and turned every surviving example into a Y2K collector chase |
| Fendi Peekaboo | c. 2009 | The house flagship, born as the quiet-luxury answer to logomania |
| Celine Luggage | 2010 | Phoebe Philo's first It bag, launched for Spring 2010 and the defining tote of her decade; the Nano, Micro and Mini sizes each arrived with their own birthdays, and the model's discontinuation in the Slimane era fixed the supply the resale market now trades on |
| Celine Trapeze | c. 2010 | The references split its debut between 2010 and 2011, and its exit is a window rather than a date, with late 2017 the recorded end of the line: a bag whose file opens and closes in disputes, which is exactly why it dates well |
| Celine Classic Box | 2011 | Philo's 2011 reissue of a 1970s archive shape, the quiet legend of logo-free luxury; the Slimane era added the Teen size in 2018, dimensioned for the phones of that year, and the market record books the model's discontinuation in 2023 |
| Celine Triomphe | c. 2018 | Celine Vipiana drew the double-C emblem from the chain around the Arc de Triomphe in 1971; it sat dormant for five decades until Hedi Slimane returned it as this bag's clasp, and the references split the bag's own release between 2018 and 2019 |
| Bottega Veneta Knot | 1978 | Originally from 1978 and reissued across every era since, which makes the Knot a layered file: the model is one of the oldest in the house, but any individual example dates by its era's materials and finish, not by the design |
| Bottega Veneta Cabat | 2001 | Tomas Maier's 2001 manifesto tote, built to show that the weave could be the whole bag: woven double-faced so the inside is as finished as the outside, with nothing written on it anywhere |
| Bottega Veneta Veneta | c. 2002 | The references do not pin its first season, which this file records as a corridor in the early Maier years; in 2006 Jodie Foster raised a black one against the New York paparazzi and the photograph eventually named this bag's own successor |
| Bottega Veneta Pouch | 2019 | Daniel Lee's Spring 2019 debut statement and the bag the trade credits with starting the new-Bottega era: the whole model is a demonstration that a bag with nothing written on it could still be the most recognizable clutch of its season |
| Bottega Veneta Cassette | c. 2019 | The padded Cassette is the Lee era's most copied silhouette and the cleanest exhibit of the maxi weave as a date: the padded, enlarged intrecciato did not exist before the new-Bottega years, so the construction itself is the era stamp |
| Bottega Veneta Jodie | 2020 | Launched for Spring 2020 and named for Jodie Foster, who shielded her face from New York photographers in 2006 with a black Veneta; the knot on the handle is usually read as her fist gathering the bag, but it actually cites the house's own knot motif going back to the 1978 minaudiere |
The file fills in one maison at a time. Greyed files are open but not yet written.
BagFile records what was made: the model, its documented introduction, its construction, and the date-code system that places an individual bag in time. Maisons publish far less history than they manufacture, so approximate dates are marked "c." and the file cites what can be documented. Model files anchor on history rather than this season's catalog, which keeps a page for an in-production model as permanent as one for a discontinued reference. And the doctrine on every page: a date code is not authentication — it is where inspection begins.