J.Lo Debuted a Rare Hermès Kelly on Her Honeymoon

On the last day of her Parisian honeymoon slash family vacation with Ben Affleck and their children, Jennifer Lopez stepped out of the Hôtel de Crillon not with her new hubby on her arm, but rather what looked like a new Hermès acquisition: a very rare, highly coveted 35cm Picnic Kelly. (If you're keeping track she alighted in Naples a few hours later and is now in Capri, where she is scheduled to perform this weekend at the LuisaViaRoma event for UNICEF.)

And even though she was spotted shopping at the maison's flagship on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré a few days prior, this certainly didn't come from there. After its 2011 runway debut by then-creative director Jean Paul Gaultier, the Picnic Kelly—which requires 10 hours of meticulous craftsmanship by both a master saddler and a basket weaver—was discontinued in 2018. Now it can only be acquired through the secondary market when the style occasionally surfaces at auction.

"The last time we had it was in 2019, and it sold for almost $44,000," says Cynthia Houlton, the global head of fashion and accessories at Sotheby's. A miniature version is still made by the maison and can command even higher auction prices: someone paid more than $100,000 for a green leather iteration last summer at Sotheby's Hong Kong. The retail price, by the way, is around $14,000.

Jenny from the Block already owns a kaleidoscopic collection of Birkins (if you're ever in the mood for another J.Lo rabbit hole, Google it) and at least two have made appearances on this Paris trip. She famously likes to carry them as gym bags, too. But this wicker moment feels doubly historic: first because she doesn't often tote a Kelly, and also because J.Lo may now be one of the only A-listers to be seen with the Picnic bag. "It's definitely not a bag you see," Houlton says, though given the diva's outsize influence, it won't stay this way for long. "I can't name names but we have certainly sold bags to other celebrities, or their wives, who have wanted what J.Lo was carrying."

Then there is the very minor controversy that arose when Mrs. Affleck was photographed putting her Birkin on the ground, which some consider to be bad luck, not to mention the issue of sullying a six-figure purse. This is why, Houlton says, Hermès Birkins and Kellys are reinforced with hardware feet. Plus, if this is a woman who has no hesitations about carrying a $300,000 Himalaya Birkin to the gym, she certainly has no qualms about placing a crocodile Birkin on a Paris street, superstitions be damned.

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