The Constance bag

size: 23 X 8 X 17

The Constance bag

The birth of Constance

Constance in French means constancy, in other words perseverance, trustworthiness and being true to yourself: qualities which can all be applied to Hermès. The importance of being Constance…

In 1967, Jean-Louis Dumas asked a fashionable young woman to design a bag for Hermès. The designer was pregnant, so she quite naturally named the bag Constance, after her daughter.

It’s an urban bag with a quietly sporty spirit, a practical and casual bag for women with a confident stride; in short, a bag of its time, a time in which everything is possible.

It’s a bag that is also timeless, the epitome of elegance in movement, a Constance that is passed on from mother to daughter.

Perfect proportions

Every Hermès bag is designed from an architectural viewpoint. Rounded within the square, the Constance is a marvel of simplicity and contrast that has fun with its diversity. Constance rounds off its corners, gives its flap suppleness, offers two generous gussets and lets its shoulder strap run free.

The contours of the H-shaped clasp curve gently into the cut-out of the flap; the secret of the Constance is its perfect roundedness.

An arcHitectural clasp

A first! The H makes its debut appearance as an ingenious clasp.

A functional design, it opened and closed with the aid of a spring-loaded mechanism concealed on each side of the bar fixed to the flap.

Well-balanced and standing firmly on its two feet with an intersecting horizontal bar, this H-shaped clasp is homogenous and harmonious. Simplicity itself.

A crucible of sensuality

What explains the aura of sensual mystery surrounding this simple and understated bag? There is the curve of the flap, a gentle curve that catches the light at the tip. There is the lambskin lining, like a caress. There is a roundedness, a key attribute. There is Hermès know-how in saddlery and leatherwork. Yet we must admit the secret of the Constance’s grace is hard to pin down exactly.

The inconstancy of Constance

A timeless bag, the Constance has been reinventing itself for fifty years. Thanks to an innovative system for adjusting the shoulder strap, which slides through its two hasps, we have one bag with two options, true to the spirit of Hermès accessories. It can be worn as desired, over the shoulder, long or short, elegant and practical for riding an electric bike!

The H-shaped clasp has been golden or silvered, lacquered, set with diamonds, covered with enamel, and inlaid with a marquetry of precious stones. The bag has gracefully accepted being made smaller, into mini and micro versions. It has grown bigger in the Élan version, and has been transformed into a satchel.

Would you like it in printed or embroidered leather, in a precious skin, leather and canvas, or silk? Alternatively, to stimulate the imagination, how about the Au Bout du Monde model?