FLOAT 100 · Handbags · No. 79
Balenciaga City (Motorcycle)
Executives nearly killed it as too slouchy and logo-less, until Kate Moss asked for one; the Balenciaga Motorcycle bag went on to hang from the arm of nearly every star photographed in the 2000s.
- Year
- 2018
- Maker
- Balenciaga
- By price in handbags
- 83 of 100
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- Balenciaga, Paris
- Designer
- Nicolas Ghesquiere, creative director 1997-2012
- Debut
- Fall/winter 2001 show, as the Motorcycle
- First run
- Only 25 bags, by one account
- This example
- 2018 City in black agneau (lambskin) with classic hardware, studs and buckles
- Size
- About 15 in long, 9.5 in high, 5.5 in deep (2018 example, as listed)
- Signatures
- Whipstitched rolled handles, long leather zipper pulls, front zip pocket, hanging mirror
- Reissued
- As Le City in 2024; a medium in black lambskin listed at $2,990 in October 2026
The bag the executives did not want
In 2000 Balenciaga asked its young creative director, Nicolas Ghesquiere, for an accessory that could become the face of the brand. At the time only a handful of bags, such as the Louis Vuitton Speedy and the Fendi Baguette, had that kind of cult status. Ghesquiere's answer was the opposite of the stiff, logo-covered bags of the day: a light, slouchy, logo-free bag hung with tassels and studded with rugged hardware. It was called the Motorcycle.
It nearly stayed a prototype. When the bag appeared at the fall/winter 2001 show, Balenciaga's management hesitated to put an unstructured bag with no logo into production, fearing it was out of step with status bags like the Fendi Baguette and Dior Saddle. Kate Moss asked Ghesquiere for one after the show, and once the company heard the model approved, it committed. Accounts differ on the details: one says Moss carried a Motorcycle on the runway itself, and that only 25 bags were made in the first production.
The remaining prototypes went to Ghesquiere's circle, including Carine Roitfeld, Emmanuelle Alt and stylist Marie-Amelie Sauve. The Motorcycle was later renamed the City.
Ghesquiere at Balenciaga
Ghesquiere, born in 1971 in Comines, France, joined Balenciaga doing licensing work and designing for the Asian market through contacts including Marie-Amelie Sauve. The house had had limited success since the 1970s, and its founder, Cristobal Balenciaga, had died in 1972. In 1997, at 25, Ghesquiere was the surprise choice to lead it, with less than four months to design his first collection.
He made Balenciaga a critically admired house again, and the Lariat bag, with its braided handles and dangling zipper pulls, was his biggest commercial success. The Gucci Group bought Balenciaga in 2001, the year the bag debuted. Ghesquiere left in November 2012 and in 2013 became artistic director of women's collections at Louis Vuitton.
The It bag of the paparazzi decade
The Motorcycle became a fixture of the 2000s, as common as low-slung jeans and Uggs. Hilary Duff, Sienna Miller, Nicole Richie, Paris and Nicky Hilton and Kim Kardashian were all photographed with one. Mary-Kate Olsen carried a mint green version that a 2006 magazine profile described as dingy and stained, with pen marks and even a chewed-up piece of gum. Worn and scratched was the point.
The bag never went away. Balenciaga made it season after season, and around 2016 a new generation, led by the Jenner sisters, took it up. In 2021, under creative director Demna, Balenciaga released the streamlined Neo Classic and the related Le Cagole. In 2024 the bag returned under a French name, Le City, with a campaign starring Kate Moss again, and in 2026, under Pierpaolo Piccioli, Le City returned with its rolled, hand-braided handles, padded strap and hanging leather-framed mirror.
Reading a 2018 black agneau City
The City in this entry is a 2018 bag in black agneau, Balenciaga's textured lambskin, with what collectors call classic hardware: studs and buckles. A 2018 example offered in excellent condition was described with a removable shoulder strap, rolled leather top handles with whipstitching, a removable mirror tucked in the front zip pocket and a black fabric interior with zip and patch pockets. It measured about 15 inches long, 9.5 inches high and 5.5 inches deep, with a handle drop of about 4.25 inches and a strap drop of about 12 inches.
Complete examples come with the strap, the mirror and a dust bag. Collectors talk about the leathers by name: owners describe the earlier goatskin, or chevre, as richer than the later lambskin, and some dislike the agneau's texture, while others prize how it softens.
The 2024 Le City changed the proportions. Balenciaga's medium Le City in black Arena lambskin measures 38.5 cm long, 24 cm high and 15 cm deep, with shiny silver hardware, hand-braided handles with waxed cord, a padded removable strap, knotted leather pullers and a removable mirror debossed with the Balenciaga logo.
A classic that never got scarce
Because Balenciaga has made the bag for so long, it has never had the scarcity of rarer It bags. In 2016 a Classic City retailed at $1,835. In November 2018 one writer noted that new City bags retailed for $2,000 to $3,000 while used ones could be found for as little as $500. In June 2026 a handbag site estimated that the bag's price had risen by about $1,000 over the previous decade, with the small Le City at $2,590.
In October 2026 a pre-owned black agneau classic-hardware City in very good condition was offered at $1,695 in the U.S., and Balenciaga listed the medium Le City in black at $2,990.
Why it still reads as the 2000s
The City is one of the few bags whose silhouette alone calls up an era. One magazine's retrospective pictured Gisele Bundchen, Lindsay Lohan, Cameron Diaz and Sarah Jessica Parker among the women photographed with it in the 2000s, and Bella Hadid, Dua Lipa and Kim Kardashian with the reissue.
Balenciaga has now brought it back twice in three years, each time with Kate Moss or the original details at the center of the story.
The numbers
- Dimensions (2018 example)
- About 15 in long x 9.5 in high x 5.5 in deep; handle drop 4.25 in, strap drop 12 in
- Material
- Agneau (textured lambskin); black fabric lining
- Hardware
- Classic hardware: studs and buckles
- Included
- Removable shoulder strap, removable mirror, dust bag
- First production
- 25 bags, by one account
- Le City medium (2026)
- 38.5 x 24 x 15 cm, Arena lambskin, shiny silver hardware
- Production quantity
- Not published; made continuously since 2001
Timeline
Cristobal Balenciaga, the house's founder, dies.
Nicolas Ghesquiere, 25, is named creative director of Balenciaga.
Balenciaga asks Ghesquiere for a signature accessory.
The Motorcycle debuts at the fall/winter 2001 show; Kate Moss asks for one, and production begins.
The Gucci Group buys Balenciaga.
A magazine profile describes Mary-Kate Olsen's battered Motorcycle bag.
Ghesquiere leaves Balenciaga.
A Classic City retails for $1,835 in the U.S.; the Jenner sisters lead a revival.
The black agneau classic-hardware City in this entry is made.
Demna introduces the Neo Classic and Le Cagole, updates of the Motorcycle.
The bag returns as Le City, with Kate Moss back in the campaign.
Pierpaolo Piccioli's Le City arrives with the hanging mirror restored.
Balenciaga lists the medium Le City in black at $2,990.
The world in 2001
Greece becomes the 12th country to join the eurozone.
Apple launches iTunes.
The Taliban begin destroying the Buddhas of Bamiyan.
The September 11 attacks kill nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
A U.S.-led coalition invades Afghanistan.
China joins the World Trade Organization.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $1,835 | Asking price, not a saleU.S. retail price for the Classic City, as listed in a 2016 guide to first designer bags. |
| Oct 3, 2026 | $1,695 | Asking price, not a salePre-owned Classic City in black agneau with classic hardware, very good condition, with strap, mirror and dust bag, offered by a U.S. reseller. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Balenciaga City (Motorcycle) is number 83 of 100 in the handbags entries of the FLOAT 100. 19 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (79 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Balenciaga's management almost refused to produce the bag because it had no logo.
- Kate Moss asking Ghesquiere for one is credited with getting it made.
- Mary-Kate Olsen's Motorcycle bag was once described as covered in stains, pen marks and a piece of chewed gum.
- Ghesquiere was 25 when Balenciaga made him creative director.
- The City has long come with a small mirror, once hung from the top of the bag and on later bags tucked into the front pocket.
- Ghesquiere's biggest commercial hit at Balenciaga was the Lariat bag, with braided handles and dangling zipper pulls.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026