Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel opened her first hat shop in 1910, but it was in February 1955 that she released the 2.55 — a shoulder bag with a chain threaded through leather so a woman could finally use her hands. The quilted stitching was borrowed from the jackets of stable boys she admired.

In the 1980s, Karl Lagerfeld reissued the flap with the interlocking CC clasp and a leather-woven chain, creating the Classic Flap that has scarcely changed since. The Boy, introduced in 2009 and named for Coco's lover Boy Capel, brought a harder, more architectural geometry to the house code.

Caviar and lambskin — the two leathers of the Classic — are chosen for opposing reasons: one for its armor-like grain, the other for its butter-soft drape. A Chanel flap is less an accessory than an artifact of a woman's autonomy.