ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

Bag designer (and cartoonist) Catherine Chaillet conceived the Constance in 1969 and named it after her newborn daughter. Says Jobert, “In the last seven years it’s really taken off. Many girls dream about it, even more than the Birkin.”

We know all about the Kelly and the Birkin, but what about the Constance, the Plume, and the Halezan? Couli Joubert, Hermès’s artistic director of leather and equestrian, shares the stories behind them. As Hermès’s creative director from 2003 to 2010, Jean Paul Gaultier also worked on some of the most covetable bags. Jypsière was the result of crossbreeding a Birkin with a game bag ( gibecière in French). Its name references Jean Paul as well as the

“nomadic gypsy spirit,” says Jobert. “You just start to draw and your pen brings you to something really strange,” says Jobert of her Roulis. But the strangest Hermès ever made was a custom apple-shaped bag. “It was for a man who was eating one apple a day,” she says. “He wanted a bag for his apple.”

Designer Évelyne Bertrand fashioned her namesake bag for equestrians to carry grooming equipment. Tools are often placed in the bag wet; the perforated “H” allowed them to dry. Non-groom-specific details were added in 2000,

when the Évelyne was updated for civilians. Styling tip: It was designed to be worn H side in. Every year Hermès celebrates a different theme; 2007 was dedicated to dance. Workshop savant Vidal named this for the Lindy Hop, a proto-swing dance that

originated in Harlem in the 1920s. This 2002 style by Vidal was actually inspired by a horse’s nose bag. “Picotin translates

to ‘peck’ or a quarter bushel, once the standard amount of grain comprising

a horse’s dinner. Debuting on the runway in 2007, the Médor is the only bag in Hermès’s dog-collar

inspired Collier de Chien accessories line, which dates from the 1920s. You’ll find a few Médors in Parisian dog parks – it’s a popular name

for French canines.