How Grace Kelly made the Hermès Kelly bag a fashion icon: the princess donned the Sac à Dépêches in Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief … and now it sells for half a million at auction

Dec 9 , 2022

Grace Kelly’s original Hermès Sac à Dépêches, later christened the Kelly bag in her honour. Photo: Bagism

Hollywood actress Grace Kelly originally carried the Sac à Dépêches as part of her character’s wardrobe in Alfred Hitchcock’s film To Catch A Thief in 1954

Created by Robert Dumas and crafted by a single artisan, each Kelly bag takes around 20 hours to make, stitching together 36 separate pieces of leather using 680 hand stitches

In the 1930s, Robert Dumas, son-in-law of the then-head of the company, Émile Hermès, created the Sac à Dépêches. It was a women’s handbag with practical straps, elegant lines and a spacious interior; a bag that was bold, modern and impeccably crafted. And a bag that would go on to become one of the most iconic fashion pieces of all time thanks to its association with one woman: Grace Kelly.

The Kelly bag is one of Hermès’ most iconic products. Photo: @gloss_vintage/Instagram

Legend has it that while working on the film To Catch a Thief in 1954, Kelly was given a Sac à Dépêches as part of her character’s wardrobe. It was love at first sight. After director Alfred Hitchcock wrapped the shoot, she kept her beloved Hermès bag and carried it frequently.

A promotional shot of Grace Kelly for the release of To Catch a Thief, directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. Photo: Handout

In 1956, when Kelly made the transition from Hollywood film star to real-life princess, her Sac à Dépêches became a part of the story too. A few months after her marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco, she stepped out in a typically elegant ensemble: a full-skirted dress, wrist-length gloves, fur coat slung over her shoulders … and her Sac à Dépêches carried prominently in front of her.

The bag was sophisticated enough to suit the outfit – and supposedly large enough to hide the growing baby bump she wasn’t yet ready to announce.

The designer Kelly handbag. Photo: Hermès

When photos of the outfit hit news shelves – including the cover of Life magazine – the Hermès bag was propelled into the spotlight. Like Kelly herself, it became an international sensation, and in the decades since, its desirability has never waned. Earlier this year, for instance, an Hermès Kelly 28 sold for a whopping US$513,000, according to Bloomberg.

Countless variations have been released by Hermès across the years, with renderings in everything from ostrich to wicker to wood, and style variations from briefcases to backpacks. Through it all, the distinctive elements of the Kelly – its trapezoid shape, triangular gussets, cut-out front flap, and turn-lock closure in either gold-plated or palladium-plated hardware – have remained the same.

Princess Grace of Monaco and Prince Rainier III of Monaco arrive in 1956 for the Night in Monte Carlo ball at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York. Photo: AFP

Regardless of the incarnation, the Kelly is more than a bag: it’s a status symbol, an heirloom, an investment piece that only ever grows in value. We can thank the bag’s timeless aesthetics and glamorous history for that, but also its unparalleled quality – each one is crafted by a single artisan, who spends around 20 hours stitching together 36 separate pieces of leather using 680 hand stitches.