Balenciaga City Navy Blue

Features

Why we love it

Description & history

This 2012 navy blue Balenciaga City with silver Pewter hardware is the most authentically vintage version of the model — soft lambskin that has lived, a natural patina telling thirteen years of real life, and antique silver hardware that was the City’s original finish before gold-tone hardware arrived. For those who like their bags with character and history.

The Balenciaga City was born in 2001 under the direction of Nicolas Ghesquière — 25 examples, rejected by executives, then given to the runway models including Kate Moss, before becoming the most photographed bag of the 2000s. The Pewter hardware version — antique silver, slightly darkened, never flashy — is the original finish of the classic City, perfectly suited to the "moto-grunge" aesthetic envisioned by Ghesquière: raw, punk, unpolished. This deep navy blue from the Spring-Summer 2012 collection is one of the richest and most versatile colours in the range — dark enough to go with everything, blue enough to bring character where black would not dare.

The lambskin used for City bags from this era is the leather most sought after by collectors — finer and softer than the pebbled leather of recent versions, it ages differently: developing a natural patina, an acquired sheen, a vintage "lustre" that no new version can replicate. Nicolas Ghesquière himself said: "No logo, very light, very effective. Women thought it was something they'd always have. It was a new fresh thing, but it looking like an old, good, friendly thing." This blue 2012 City is precisely that thing — old, good, familiar.

Scuffing on the corners and handles visible in the photos — acknowledged, not minimised. The natural patina of the lambskin is a feature, not a flaw. Clean interior, no major flaws. Sold with Rarr Vintage dustbag — a 2012 navy blue Pewter City for those who prefer authenticity to perfection.