Luxury Designer Bag Investment Series: Chanel Boy Bag Review – History, Prices 2020

I started a series called: Luxury Designer Bag Investments – Are they actually worth the money? and will be going into the history & background, along with as many notes as possible into each Iconic Bag and how it reached Cult Status… and presumably stayed there!

As there are many bags, I will be posting a new one every week until I run out. ?

Today, introducing the…

Chanel Boy Bag

HISTORY: Why & how it became famous

Karl Lagerfeld released this Boy Bag in the Fall/Winter collection 2011 and released in 2012. It is named after Arthur (Boy) Capel, who was Coco Chanel’s great love (she never married).

“Chanel used men’s underwear to make dresses; she has a boyish attitude, in fact it is the very spirit of Chanel. She got it from Boy Capel, the greatest love of her life, which, incidentally, explains why the new bag is called the Boy Chanel.” – Karl Lagerfeld

The design is inspired by the cartridge bag used in hunting and has a very masculine look with antiqued hardware and thicker chains versus the classic Chanel flap.

Boy Capel was an Englishman and a self-made man who was a ship-owner, politician, tycoon and polo player.

He was married to the Honourable Diana Wyndham, née Lister but he had a 9-year love affair with Coco and backed her financially, while also inspiring her to put a more masculine edge to her designs.

Boy and Coco would often rendezvous at his country estate. When his wife planned to visit that home, Capel decided to lend Coco the money to open her first store in Paris — so he could avoid the two women crossing paths. This is when she started her millinery business at 21 Rue Cambon — eight years before opening her famous boutique at 31 Rue Cambon.

He died in 1919 in a car crash, supposedly on the way to meet Coco for a Christmas rendezvous. After his death, she wore black after his death which was what inspired her ‘little black dress’ as she told a friend that the world would mourn with her, and it ended up becoming the epitome of class and chic for women worldwide.

No one person made this Boy Bag famous in 2011 – it was an instant hit on its own with celebrities falling in love with the style, and became so popular that Chanel has now made it one of its Classics.

How to tell if you have a genuine Chanel Boy Bag

There’s a tiny CC on the clasp with flat tips
4 star screws under the clasp not flathead ones
The logo on it should have clean, flat lettering — never curved or bubbled
The zipper should say Lampo
It’s a fake if your bag has a serial number beginning with a number lower than 15

PRICE LIST for the Medium Classic Chanel Boy Bag

Year	Price in $USD
2012	$3200
2013	$3900
2016	$4000
2017	$4300
2019	$5000
2020	$5000

RETURNS ON A CHANEL BOY BAG

The bag has returned 39% in value since 2012 when it originally cost $3200.

If we normalize it to 2020 dollars, $2000 back in 2012 is now worth $3597.52.

In stores, it sells for $5000 for a difference of $1402.48 or 39% over what its price would be, taking inflation solely into account.

(Remember, value is also subjective because someone has to see that and buy it from you at that price, just like with stocks, but a lot trickier to liquidate. Also, who is going to buy an old bag when they can buy a new one for the same price?)

The S&P 500 had you invested that same $3200 and not touched it or added any money to it, would have returned: $7250.01 even with the recent 2020 drop due to the virus: