In 1915 Christobal Balenciaga began designing haute couture and the fashion house was born. In 1997, the arrival of designer Nicolas Ghesquière as Creative Director saw the brand become great again after many tumultuous years.
In 2000, the 25 year old designed his first bag for the house. It was dismissed, considered lack lustre and too soft. It didn't have the structure and glam that was a feature of popular bags at the time. Ghesquière left his two prototypes at his studio as nobody cared about them.
Legend has it, Kate Moss saw one of the prototypes after a Balenciaga show and requested one from Nicolas Ghesquière himself. Execs didn’t think the bag would sell, but when Moss jumped on it, they realised its potential. Then, the bag went into production.
The first bags were originally made in black and brown, but soon Balenciaga started adding more and more colours, and now the Motorcycle bag can be found in every colour of the rainbow and even in different prints; from floral to stripes.
Above: The Motorcycle and City bags comes in a huge range of colours.
One of the biggest pluses of the Motorcycle bag is the type of leather used in the handbags. Balenciaga uses a durable, thin, soft vintage crafted lambskin leather.
Unlike other bags that look best when the leather is untarnished, Balenciaga Motorcycle bags have wrinkles and lines, which ensures that no two bags will ever look the same.
Above: No two bags are the same.
The Balenciaga Motorcycle bag looks great worn because it is, in fact, designed to be worn. Its soft and unstructured construction, the very traits that Balenciaga execs thought would make it a flop; are what make this bag a design classic.