Description

Brand: Chanel Type: Vanity Case / Cosmetic Case Material: Black Leather Exterior Colour: Black Hardware: Gold-Tone Design Details: Smooth leather upper section, diamond-quilted lower section Closure: Zip-around with CC logo charm pull Handle: Single knotted leather top handle Dimensions: 9" W x 6.5" H x 3.5" D (approx.) Interior: Black leather lining with grosgrain trim, CHANEL heat-stamp The vanity case occupies a particular place in the Chanel lexicon, blending the atelier's codes of diamond-quilted lambskin and polished hardware with the practical logic of travel and organization. This example marries smooth black leather across the body and lid with the house's signature matelassé stitching at the base, a study in textural contrast anchored by gold-tone metalwork and the interlocking-CC charm that swings from the wraparound zip. Inside, black leather and grosgrain frame a single open compartment, preserving the streamlined, utilitarian silhouette that has distinguished Chanel's vanity pieces since the mid-twentieth century, when such cases accompanied trunk voyages and steamship crossings as much as evening tables. Notes from the Curator Karl Lagerfeld introduced the Chanel Vanity Case in the 1990s, transforming the travel accessory into an everyday handbag and designing the earliest version in black caviar leather, though the house produced a range of interpretations throughout the decade. This example, with a date code placing it between 1991 and 1994, demonstrates an alternative treatment of the form: smooth black leather across the lid and body gives way to the signature matelassé diamond quilting only at the base, creating a deliberate tonal tension between clean, minimal surfaces and Chanel's most recognizable motif. That restraint extends to the hardware—a single knotted top handle, a wraparound zip with a CC charm pull in polished gold—and to the interior, which eschews the mirrors and elastic organizational bands common to many vanity cases of the period in favor of a single open chamber lined in black leather and grosgrain. Inspired by vintage jewelry boxes and the cosmetic cases once carried by traveling women, the silhouette reflects the late-twentieth-century moment when functionality and collectability began to converge in Chanel's leather-goods line, rendering the vanity case a wearable archival object rather than a purely utilitarian one.

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Bidding Details

• Starting Bid: $10
• Buyer's Premium: 20%
• Auction End Date: