Part 3: 2015 Reissue vs Vintage Diana

Most will know that I am the biggest fan of the vintage Chanel style called "Diana" which generally refers to a circular tab border flap with traditional matelasse quilting and 24k plated gold hardware. 

The style was produced roughly between the years of 1989-1996. Roughly being the key word here, as unless you worked in Chanel manufacturing and procurement in those years, it is hard to say exactly when those serial codes cut off every year. 

As Chanel often does, it brings back old designs seasonally. A lot of new "seasonal" styles as we see in the latest seasonal shows are often recycled from decades ago, but unless there is an encyclopaedia of vintage styles, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which year from the archives the latest seasonal style comes from. 

Thankfully (as I see it) the Diana was still re-produced in 2015, what I call the "Diana reissue". It was the only season to ever re-run the Diana style and of course as the world's greatest Diana fan, I had to get my hands on one for "research purposes". This has to be the greatest showdown of all time and a golden opportunity for a vintage nerd like me to totally comb through with great detail which design actually works better. 

Main differences in summary:

Taking each of the components in turn (with pictures as aids) 

Strap/Wear/Chain

the 2015 reissue chain is more like a WOC than a classic flap. You will see that it is significantly thinner than the vintage style. It’s also not 24K gold plated but brushed gold so it is lighter.

Quite obvious from this picture the difference in strap length and style from above picture.

The strap on the Diana reissue is one of the aspects design-wise I do not like.  There are two grommets on the top, which means that the bag can be worn double strap. However, it also means when you wear it cross body, there will be a chain across the top of the bag which flattens the puffs and leaves the risk of potential chain marks if your bag is too heavy. If you know me, you know I preserve Diana puffs with my life and I NEVER EVER RECOMMEND PUTTING HEAVY THINGS IN YOUR BAGS. EVER! NO EXCUSES! That being said, I’ve had consistent use with this bag (albeit very gently) for a few years now and there are still no suggestions of chain marks anywhere.

Body

The back of the bag in the Diana reissue includes a back pocket. Personally I never put anything in there and I think it adds unnecessary thickness to the bag, making it feel a bit chunkier and more 3D. However, I can see a frequent public transport commuter putting a travel card in there being quite functional. It does not and was not intended for your phone!!

Stitching/Hardware

Another big difference (not functionally, but if you’re a vintage bag nerd like me you get really excited over details like this!) is the stitching. Craftsmanship wise, both have edge stitching but the vintage flap has bigger puffs, with 12 stitches per quilt edge. This is one of the ways to separate out fakes from the real bags, looking carefully at the stitching and stitch count as every single quilt will have neat symmetrical stitching of 12 stitches in a vintage Diana. You can tell many things from the stitching including actual original color of the bag as Chanel almost never does contrast stitching.

You can also see that the CC logo is different with the reissue being curved, more 3D and the logo trademark is circular and not square. The reissue has even a puffy tab border, which the vintage style usually does not have.

The vintage style, being much much older, has puffs that are not as pronounced. This is of course due to material as well as by design. The reissue, has higher puffs as well as a sturdier stronger lamb (the newer untouched lamb) which gives it the perception of puffier puffs.

Body

More comparisons of the body. It’s very obvious how much fits in the reissue vs. the vintage style from this above photo.

Inside Compartment

In the main compartment, there is another hidden flap inside the reissue. Again, personally not a function I need or use as presumably I have a wallet and any card you want to access for convenience can be put in the outside back pocket (which I also do not use). Not sure if this was a nod to the "secret love letter" component that Coco loved, that isn't really as secret as the classic flap design or if it was designed for pure functionality. This component has a magnetic closure but it you can see that from use it will dent the puffs around it.  It can again just fit a card and cannot really be stretched to fit a lipstick or anything with any substantial thickness (i.e. no phone!) The thickness of the entire reissue stems from all these smaller components that add quite a few layers of leather but unfortunately does not result in a larger main body storage component (as you can see from the picture above). 

Final thoughts - which one do I prefer

I'm actually torn between these two as I feel like there have been improvements to the reissue style and as a person who likes encouraging innovation and improvement I feel the need to praise some of the aspects I love for the general user (i.e. double strap, enhanced puffs, back pockets). But why change something that works? To me, as a cross body bag user, I prefer more the roomier space of the vintage Chanel as opposed to layers added on by all the pockets. I also enjoy the clean gold hardware more than brushed gold. However, the color on my reissue is a beautiful rare tan/gold color which is the perfect neutral. If in any other color, I would definitely put my vote for the vintage style over the reissue. But in my specific situation, it's a draw! What do you think, which one do you prefer? Any other elements you would love to incorporate?