Kate Moss’s Beach Bag? An Hermès Kelly, of Course
In the grand tradition of Jane Birkin, Kate Moss is treating a five-figure Hermès bag like any ol’ thing.
Vacationing on the Spanish island of Formentera with her daughter, Lila, the model made the ultimate beachfront power move. Instead of a raffia tote or a canvas keepall, she used a brown Hermès Kelly bag to store her beach essentials—yep, the same model of bag that will run you upward of $10,000 to purchase secondhand. But true to Jane Birkin, the inspiration for the Kelly’s sister bag, Moss didn’t baby her investment piece. She tossed the strap haphazardly over her arm à la Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, letting the top flap fold inside of itself and the gold hardware to dangle on the sides. Sand debris covered the bottom half of the piece, while a few scratches and the bag’s tanned, faded leather suggested that this wasn’t the first time Moss took her luxury grail on a trip to the beach.
True to form, the rest of Moss’s beach look was just as rule-breaking as her bag. She wore a sheer Boho blouse, stacks of mixed metal cuffs that traveled up her arms, and a flesh-tone thong that she cinched with a useless black belt.
Before she headed to the beach, Moss was seen wearing a long, silk skirt as a cover-up while sporting her hair in a low bun. She nearly spilled out the contents of her Kelly by how casually she gripped it in her hand.
It’s been a big year for Hermès. Last month, an anonymous bidder purchased Jane Birkin’s original Birkin bag for a whopping $10.1 million at a Sotheby’s Paris auction. Considering the price tag, you’d expect the Birkin to be in pristine condition—it was anything but. The 40-year bag featured tons of scratches and signs of use, fitting as it was owned by the woman who once said, “A Birkin bag is a very good rain hat; just put everything else in a plastic bag.”
Though Moss used the Kelly model instead of the more coveted Birkin for her beach day, she wore it like an A+ student of the school of Jane Birkin would have: disheveled, nearly falling apart, and packed to the brim with who knows what.
