Size: 11.61'' x 15.74'' x 5.7'' Notes from the Curator This tote carries the serial number 4851391, situating its manufacture in the late 1980s or early 1990s—the dawn of Karl Lagerfeld's tenure as creative director. Designed in the late 1990s by Karl Lagerfeld, this generously proportioned shopping bag is executed in cream quilted patent leather, a material whose mirror-like gloss is achieved through coated calfskin that gives the leather exceptional structure and durability. Patent leather is glossy and beautiful, and Chanel wove it into its classic vocabulary during the era when the house was redefining handbag construction for modern life. The embossed interlocking CC logo on the front panel and the flat beige leather handles interwoven with gold-tone hardware echo the house's signature chain-and-leather strap innovation, here adapted for tote duty. During the 1990s, vintage Chanel bags of the 1990s are among the most prized of the brand's offerings, a period when Lagerfeld's reinterpretations of Coco's codes became the templates collectors seek today.