Hermes Birkin/Kelly: Hardware and Parts Anatomy

There are many ways naming the Hermes Birkin/Kelly hardware and parts. Although there might be official anatomy Hermes is using, this post will not further the research on what are those. Instead, we will be diving into the various names we use interchangeably, to have a clarity of which part of the bag one is referring to.

Instead of showing you the picture of classic Hermes Birkin and Kelly, I cannot resist from showing you the variations – Birkin JPG and Kelly Lakis. They are unique and beautiful in their own way.

Summary

Click at the anatomy in the table below to jump to the respective section.

Handle

Birkin has two handles, connected to the front and back of the bag body through four connecting points directly sewed onto the body.

Whereas Kelly has only one handle, connected to the flap of the bag through two connecting points, which consist of metal rings.

Tab

The tabs are only for Kelly, to hold the double D-rings and handle.

Flap

Birkin flap has a sharp angle at the top edge, whereas Kelly has a curved top. Besides, Birkin flap are cut out to make way for the two front handles sewed onto the body of the bag, see dotted reference lines I made in the image below.

Many like to carry these handbags without closing the flaps properly. They are doing this deliberately, for fashion and convenience reasons.

For Birkin, the flap is put in the main compartment. For Kelly, the touret has to be passed through the hole of the plaque. This is to achieve a good balance while carrying Kelly, regardless if you are holding the handle or using a strap.

Plaque

The plaque consists of three parts, which are:

There are many types of hardware materials, colours and textures. Gold plated, palladium, ruthenium, plain, Guilloche, shinny, matte… or even set with diamonds.

For new bag, the protective films are adhered to the plaque to prevent scratches. You can choose to keep them in place or remove them.

There are also unbranded protective films sold on the internet for those who lost their stickers or want to replace the damaged stickers. I find as long as the unbranded accessories are designed and sold for Birkin and Kelly, they tend to be overpriced. I do not understand this logic, because they are unbranded anyway.

Pontet

Pontets are used to hold the sangles in place

There are two oval cut-out on the flap to allow the sangles to pass through the flap. Sangles are only installed at the front of Birkin.

Kelly does not have any sangles installed.

Clochette

It is a bell-shape leather sleeve to contain a set of two keys for the padlock. It comes with a slim leather stripe, which holds the set of keys at one end (hidden in the clochette), and the padlock at another end. It is usually hung over the handle as a charm.

Cadena

The same classic cadena used for both Birkin and Kelly. It is meant to “bolt” at the touret, to keep the content inside the bag safe. Of course, this method of safeguarding our belongings is inconvenient and outdated today. However, this is also how the world operated in the olden days. It is something worth our time to think about when a thing becomes a tradition.

These are other names you often see on the internet: H padlock, padlock, lock.

Tiret

Tiret means “dash” in French. It serves as a connector which holds the cadena and clochette together. It is made of the same leather as the bag, and it has stitches along its centre. These stitches hold the folded tiret together, see my second image below for illustration.

Body

I have nothing much to write for this part. I hope you like the drawing.

Strap

Only Kelly comes with a strap. The strap is available in different lengths, widths, materials and designs. You can purchase the strap separately and use interchangeably to match your outfit.

Birkin does not have a strap. Although Hermes has rolled out harness specially made to sling-carry the Birkin, I am not a fan of the overall look of Birkin with harness. It is just… not nice. There are only two connecting points for the sling to the harness, with the use of two D rings, of which one is on the left front and another one is on the right back of the harness.

Sangle

Sangle is a French word. It simply means strap.

Both Birkin and Kelly have the sangles sewn onto the back of the bag.