Hermès Limited Edition Lettre Kelly
H for Hermès, a committed defender of the arts and letters with the Kellygraphie bag.
E for exhilarating variation on the alphabet.
R for reunion of colourful, smooth-grained leather pieces, cut and fitted together down to one-tenth of a millimetre, and perfectly regular on the surface.
M for marquetry in leather.
E for exacting technique customised exclusively for the Kelly.
S for saddle-maker.
By Hermes
The Hermès Kellygraphie Kelly is a limited edition, also known as Lettre Kelly. The geometric patterns on these bags are pieced together seamlessly to create letters. It is a modern way Hermès uses to implement color blocking. The inspiration comes from an artist employed in 1930. The sketches of the ‘Mysterious Mademoiselle D’ led Hermès to integrate her drawings in different ways and collections. In the collections of the Plume 28 and Kelly Retourné 28 bags before the Lettre Kelly, you can find the Lettres au Carré print on Toile de Camp and Swift calfskin.
‘Mademoiselle D’ spent only a little over a year at Hermès, but drew over 60 different sketches that she signed with a D on the back of the drawings. The most recent inspiration of integrating color blocking and Mademoiselle D’s sketches is the Lettre Kelly. This new interpretation of the sketches was introduced in the 2018 Resort collection and the Lettre Kellys have become highly sought-after since then.
These bags come in five letters with several color and leather combinations each. When placed together, they spell "Hermès". Remarkable is also that the bags don’t only come in different color combinations, but also feature three different kinds of leather. The common leather combination is Epsom, Sombrero and Chèvre Mysore. For some bags, Hermès uses Taurillon Clemence leather.
The graphic Mademoiselle D-inspired letter designs were also used for Lettres au carré bag charms, which come in Epsom and Sombrero calfskin and Chèvre Mysore goatskin. The charms are made by using leather inlay techniques and you can use them to personalize your bag. There are 26 charms in total.
