Hermès HAC Haut à Courroies 40 Bleu Paradis Togo and Grey Feutre 2017

The Hermès HAC 40 in Bleu Paradis Togo with grey Feutre wool from 2017 is a connoisseur's bag in the most precise sense of the term — a piece that requires the buyer to know what they are looking at, and that rewards that knowledge with a configuration almost impossible to source on the secondary market in unused condition. The HAC — Haut à Courroies, the original Hermès traveling bag designed in 1892 — predates both the Kelly and the Birkin, and was originally conceived to allow equestrians to transport their saddles. Today it remains one of the house's most architecturally serious silhouettes: taller than a Birkin, more upright, less domesticated. This particular configuration — bi-material Feutre wool and Togo leather, with bright Bleu Paradis set against soft heathered grey — represents one of the more unusual special productions of Hermès's Feutre programme.

Bleu Paradis Togo & Grey Feutre — A Bi-Material Construction

The Feutre wool body is one of Hermès's quieter material innovations — a dense, pressed felt in a heathered grey that reads as warm, soft, and entirely unfamiliar in the context of the HAC silhouette. Where leather offers structure and craft tradition, Feutre offers depth and a tactile register no leather can replicate: a surface that absorbs rather than reflects, that softens the bag's architectural lines without compromising them. The wool construction is dense enough to hold the HAC's signature upright shape, but yielding enough to introduce the kind of warmth typically absent from a bag of this scale.

The Bleu Paradis Togo provides the structural anchor — the rolled top handles, the front strap closure, the trims, the corner reinforcements, and the side panels are all executed in Hermès's flagship grained calfskin in this vivid, fully saturated azure. Bleu Paradis is one of Hermès's stronger blue references of the post-2015 palette: bright but never aggressive, saturated without sliding into electric. The two materials are doing distinct work — the Feutre softens, the Togo anchors — and the contrast between them makes the bag visually richer than either material could achieve alone.

2017 — The Production Context

Bi-material Feutre HACs and Birkins represent one of Hermès's stronger explorations of non-leather body construction — pieces produced in limited seasonal runs that have become genuinely scarce on the secondary market. 2017 production (year stamp: A in a square) places this bag in a specific window of Feutre output, before the material shifted in availability and before the post-2020 environment compressed access to this kind of unusual special-order configuration. Bi-material HACs in unused condition are now collector pieces in the strict sense of the term — held more often than carried, and increasingly rare to surface unworn.

Palladium Hardware — The Architectural Counterpoint

The palladium hardware sits in cool counterpoint to both the warm grey of the Feutre and the saturated blue of the Togo. Where gold would have softened the palette toward something more decorative, palladium maintains the bag's serious, architectural register — the right register for a silhouette with this much historical weight. The signature Touret turn-lock on the front strap, the studded base feet, the strap hardware, the lock and clochette — all in unworn palladium, all carrying the precision standard the house applies to every metalwork element on a Birkin-family bag.

Condition

Pristine, as-new condition — the bag has not been carried. The original protective films remain in place across the hardware. The films themselves show light oxidation, which is a normal characteristic of long-stored Hermès pieces where the adhesive ages slightly faster than the metal beneath; the underlying palladium hardware is unaffected and remains in unworn condition. The bag is delivered with its complete original set: clochette, padlock, two keys, the Le Cuir Hermès care booklet, and original Hermès dust bag.

Condition & Authenticity

Authenticated and offered by Élégance du Luxe. Every piece in our inventory is carefully reviewed before listing and comes with our full Authenticity Guarantee.

• Model: HAC 40 (Haut à Courroies)
• Year: 2017 (A in a square)
• Materials: Bleu Paradis Togo leather & Grey Feutre wool (bi-material construction)
• Colour: Bleu Paradis (azure blue) with heathered grey wool body
• Hardware: Palladium
• Closure: Touret turn-lock with strap closure
• Carry: Top handles
• Condition: Pristine, as-new — bag uncarried, protective films in place (light oxidation on the films; hardware unaffected)
• Includes: Clochette, padlock, two keys, Le Cuir Hermès booklet, original Hermès dust bag
• Origin: Hermès Paris