Everything You Should Know About Vintage Chanel Handbags: Q & A With Boutique Patina

PB: Why are these vintage Chanel bags so hard to find? After all, with so many produced over decades, shouldn’t they be in large supply? 

Boutique Patina: It’s actually the opposite. While Chanel continues to release its newest items season after season, there is a decreasing supply of vintage Chanel. The supply of older (vintage) bags is much lower than one might expect. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the sheer production rates of leather goods was approximately 6% of what it is today (based on pre-COVID numbers).

Serial numbers and production years show the simple math. Chanel aficionados know that Chanel gave serial numbers to small leather goods (SLGs) and handbags until last year (2021). The final series of numbers was 31 million (31XXXXXX). This numbering system started in the mid-1980’s at “0 million,” or a six-digit serial number with or without a 0 or 00 before it.

In recent years, Chanel often released up to four (4) serial numbers over the course of one year. For example, the 2019 handbags and SLGs (produced in 2018), had serial numbers beginning at 26 million, 27, 28 and 29 million. There were between 3-4 million handbags and SLGs produced in one year.

Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, however, it could take up to four (4) years for Chanel to finish production of just one million serial numbers. For example, in 1991,1992, 1993 and 1994 Chanel only produced approximately 250,000 pieces per year encompassing 2 million series serial numbers.

Essentially, Chanel produces 16 times more handbags and SLGs today than they did 4 decades ago.

See Boutique Patina’s selection of pristine Chanel and Hermès bags here.