The other day we put up a post about the Hermes Hac 50 Haut à Courroies bag from the 1980's. Many people really liked it and some asked us to tell more about this bag. There's really very little information about it, and it was even harder to find its real name and year of production. Buying a bag like this anywhere is, I think, extremely difficult, but it really is an incredible creation from Hermes. As you've already understood, this is the Hermes HAC 50, and the first thing you need to know is that it isn't a Birkin at all, even though in the listings it's labeled that way. HAC stands for Haut à Courroies, which translates to something like high straps, and it's the oldest Hermes bag, it was invented back in 1892, when those who are reading this weren't yet in this world (most likely); it was invented not just for the sake of it but was intended for transporting saddles and riding boots. While the Birkin everyone knows appeared almost a hundred years later, in 1984, and was drawn specifically with an eye to the HAC, so in fact before you is the progenitor of that very Birkin, and not the other way around. Although I'm sure many people think that the Birkin specifically stood at the origins of the Hermes brand, but that's far from the case. And essentially the Birkin is a bag that was once intended for the equipment for horseback riding, only in a heavily reduced version.

This particular one is from the eighties, and the most interesting thing that immediately catches the eye is the canvas of this bag, the so called Ulysse line, that very bold geometric pattern of H letters that Hermes was putting on canvas in exactly those years. Because the body isn't fully leather but made of toile with leather handles and gilded hardware, it's one of the lightest HACs ever made, I mentioned this once in the comments, that the bag, because of these features, has a relatively low weight. And over the decades the canvas has gained a beautiful patina. The size 50 is a huge travel format, noticeably bigger than the classic Birkin, even back then few were made, and in good condition today they go for around fifty thousand dollars and up.

So why is it so magnificent? Not only because of its insanely stylish vintage look, this bag in its pure form is the living history of the brand, the thing Hermes started making bags with in the first place, surviving to our times. HACs like this have long been bought not to carry but as a collector's object, some people even put them in their home as an interior piece. Which is funny in its own way, a bag that was invented a hundred plus years ago to carry dirty boots, now they're afraid to take it out of the house an extra time. And you know, its look, the look of a grown up bag, makes it even more beautiful, if it were in "ideal condition" as if from the factory, it wouldn't be as good, do you agree with me? What do you think, did Hermes make better bags before than they do now?

You asked? I made it for you! A living legend, the Hermes 50 Haut à Courroies 1980's