First designed in 1958, this hobo bag was initially named the G 1907, and wasn’t until 1961 that it was christened the Jackie,   after being frequently spotted on Jacqueline Onassis, wife of the late John F. Kennedy. In fact, the G 1907 bags from 1958 to 1960 were nicknamed as “Bouvier”, as a tribute to Jackie O’s own surname (Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy), before her marriage to Aristotle Onassis. The original Jackie featured the revamped piston lock (yep, the one that resembles a bullet or whistle) instead of the hook clasp of the Bouvier, while the Bouvier from the mid-1970s was replaced with a snap lock closure.

In the early 2000s, Tom Ford brought the Jackie back and replaced the original piston lock with a snap clasp. Then, in 2009, then Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini resuscitated the bag from the archives, and called it the New Jackie. In this reinterpreted version, its silhouette was slouchier. Giannini also added a Bamboo detail tassels, and Selleria stitching (the exposed whipstitch along with the comb-stitch that holds the canvas to the leather base, but there were also leather versions without these elements. The New Jackie became one of the House’s staples from 2009 right up to 2014, which saw the addition of a new Jackie variation, known as the Jackie Soft – an entirely new line which also included various other styles, including a clutch, bucket, tote, and crossbody.

The Jackie had disappeared from Gucci collections until 2019, when we first caught sight of the Jackie in Alessandro Michele’s Chateau Marmont collection. And now, Michele has reintroduced a new iteration of the Jackie in a big way, as part of the Men’s Fall/Winter 2020 collection. This time around, known as The Jackie 1961, this iconic bag pays tribute to the original Jackie (hence “1961”) and retains the original signature piston lock closure. Size-wise, though, the hobo now comes in significantly shrunken proportions. Available in 3 different sizes – medium, small, and mini, because why not, since teensy-weensy bags are all the rage right now – the Jackie 1961 comes in black and red leather, GG Supreme canvas with Web stripe, while small and mini versions come with a long detachable shoulder strap in neutral-coloured exotic python as well as popping candy colours including lilac, butter, light blue and soft pink.

Though it was introduced as part of the Men’s collection, the is definitely a unisex piece that works just as well on women as it does on men, don’t you think?

Images courtesy of Gucci