Chanel Boy Bag New Medium, Caviar, Black

The man behind the name

Arthur Edward Capel was born in Brighton on December 20, 1881, the son of a British shipping merchant and his French-born wife. Known as Boy, he became a polo player and a shipping merchant in his own right, apparently a wealthy self-made man by 1909. That year, by most accounts, he met Gabrielle Chanel, then 26 and the mistress of his friend Étienne Balsan.

Capel financed Chanel's first shops, and his own way of dressing, notably his blazers, helped shape what became the Chanel look. Their affair lasted about nine years. He was never faithful to her, and he married someone else. On December 22, 1919, he was killed in a car accident in the south of France, supposedly on his way to meet Chanel for Christmas. He was 38.

When Chanel introduced the bag in 2011, Karl Lagerfeld spelled out the connection: Chanel had used men's underwear to make dresses, she had a boyish attitude that was the very spirit of the house, and she got it from Boy Capel, the great love of her life, which, he said, explains why the new bag is called the Boy Chanel.

A cartridge bag for a younger customer

Chanel unveiled the Boy Chanel collection in May 2011, and the bag walked the runway in the Fall/Winter 2011 collection. Its shape came from the cartridge bag carried by hunters: boxy, framed and closed with a sturdy push-lock instead of the Classic Flap's soft turn-lock. For Spring 2012 the bag was reworked with the large CC closure that defines it today, which is why some guides date the Boy to 2011 and others to 2012.

The timing was deliberate. Chanel's signature bags skewed toward older customers with more formal wardrobes, and the Boy was meant to reach the younger shoppers who were taking an interest in the brand. One retrospective calls it the first time Chanel put most of its marketing effort behind a single big release. It worked: by 2016 a guide was calling it an instant classic, and it remained the younger Chanel customer's bag of choice until the Chanel 19 arrived in 2019.

Lagerfeld, who had run Chanel since 1983, kept reissuing the Boy in new forms nearly every season, from chevron and 'reverso' quilting to so-black and iridescent versions and exotic skins, until Chanel announced in 2018 that it would stop using exotic skins.

How to read a New Medium in black caviar

Chanel describes the Boy by its framed rectangular flap, its gourmette chain and its double C push-button clasp. The front panel carries the diamond quilting inside a frame of straight, channel-stitched borders, and the lock is a blocky plate with an oversized CC. The strap is a heavy chain with a leather shoulder pad.

The black caviar New Medium with aged gold hardware is described in resale listings with textured quilted calfskin and linear quilted borders, an aged gold chain-link strap with a leather pad, an aged gold Boy CC push-lock and a black fabric interior with zipped and flat pockets. Black caviar New Mediums also exist with silver, gold, ruthenium and aged ruthenium hardware.

Size is where buyers get confused. The Boy has come in a seasonal Mini, Small, Medium (now called the Old Medium), New Medium, Large and an Extra Large made only in 2013 and 2014. The New Medium was added shortly after the launch to give more room and more interior pockets than the Old Medium. Guides give the New Medium as 28 x 18 x 9 cm, about 11 x 7 x 3.5 inches, against about 25 cm wide for the Old Medium and 30 cm for the Large; resale listings measure it at 11 to 11.25 inches across the base. One guide warns that resellers sometimes list the Old Medium simply as 'medium' and confuse the New Medium with the Large, so the width in centimeters is the surest test.

Retail, resale and the New Medium today

In January 2016 the New Medium started at $5,200 in quilted calfskin, between the Medium at $4,700 and the Large at $5,500. One reseller's guide reports the Medium rising from $4,700 in 2018 to $6,600 in 2023. Chanel's US catalog in 2026 lists three Boy shoulder bags: the Small, the Boy Chanel handbag and the Large, the last at $7,800 in black grained calfskin with gold-tone metal. Resale listings of the New Medium cite an estimated retail of $7,800; Chanel's own listing does not use the name New Medium.

Resale asks sit far below that. On October 1, 2026, a US reseller listed the black caviar New Medium with aged gold hardware cited in this page's record, dated 2014 and in very good condition with plating wear and pitting on the hardware, at $2,835, reduced from $3,150. The same seller asked $3,995 for a 2017 example with aged gold hardware. Black caviar New Mediums in other hardware finishes were listed between $3,105 and $4,650.

These are asking prices, not sales. No auction result for a single black caviar New Medium with aged gold hardware was found in the sources used for this page.

The numbers

Dimensions

About 28 x 18 x 9 cm (11 x 7 x 3.5 in) per guides; resale listings measure 11-11.25 x 6.5-7.5 x 3 in

Material

Caviar (grained calfskin) in black, diamond quilted center with channel-stitched border; black fabric interior

Hardware

Aged gold-tone chain-link strap with leather shoulder pad; aged gold Boy CC push-lock

Sizes in the line

Mini (seasonal), Small, Old Medium, New Medium, Large; Extra Large 2013-2014 only

Production quantity

Not published by Chanel

Timeline

1. Dec 20, 1881

   Arthur 'Boy' Capel is born in Brighton, England.

2. 1909

   Capel's affair with Gabrielle Chanel apparently begins; he goes on to finance her first shops.

3. Dec 22, 1919

   Capel is killed in a car accident in the south of France, reportedly on his way to spend Christmas with Chanel.

4. 1983

   Karl Lagerfeld becomes chief designer at Chanel.

5. 2011

   The Boy bag makes its runway debut in the Fall/Winter 2011 collection.

6. May 24, 2011

   Chanel's Boy Chanel collection is announced, with Lagerfeld's explanation of the name.

7. 2012

   For Spring 2012 the bag is reworked with the large CC closure that defines it today.

8. 2013

   An Extra Large Boy is produced, through 2014 only.

9. 2014

   The black caviar New Medium with aged gold hardware in this page's record is dated to this year.

10. Jan 2016

    A guide lists the New Medium from $5,200 in quilted calfskin, alongside Small, Medium and Large.

11. 2017

    Another black caviar New Medium with aged gold hardware offered in 2026 is dated to this year.

12. 2018

    Chanel announces it will stop making products from exotic skins, ending exotic Boy bags.

13. Feb 2022

    The Boy bag's tenth anniversary is marked as a decade of an icon.

14. Oct 1, 2026

    Black caviar New Mediums with aged gold hardware are offered on resale at $2,835 and $3,995.

The world in 2009

• 2009

  Alessandro Nivola plays Boy Capel opposite Audrey Tautou in the film Coco avant Chanel.

• 2010

  Chanel releases the Mini Flap, which becomes one of the most desired versions of the Classic Flap.

• 2012

  Whitney Houston dies, Prince William and Catherine announce they are expecting a child, and the Twilight film saga comes to a close.

• 2013

  Karl Lagerfeld begins publishing political cartoons regularly in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

• 2014

  Chanel's Cruise 2014 collection introduces the plexiglass perfume-bottle bag.

• 2017

  Chanel launches the Gabrielle, called its first major bag launch since the Boy.

• Feb 19, 2019

  Karl Lagerfeld dies at 85; that year the Chanel 19 takes over from the Boy as the younger customer's Chanel.

Price record

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, Chanel Boy Bag New Medium, Caviar, Black is number 42 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 (36 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Boy is modeled on a hunter's cartridge bag, which is why it is boxy and closes with a push-lock rather than a turn-lock.
• Boy Capel died in a car crash on December 22, 1919, reportedly on his way to spend Christmas with Gabrielle Chanel.
• An Extra Large Boy existed, but only in 2013 and 2014.
• Chanel's current US catalog does not list a size called New Medium; resellers and guides use the name to tell it apart from the original, smaller Medium.
• The Boy appeared in exotic skins such as crocodile, python and stingray until Chanel announced in 2018 that it would stop using exotic skins.
• The bag first walked the runway in Fall 2011, but the big CC lock most people picture arrived with Spring 2012.