The Bolide is widely recognised as the first handbag closed with a zip. Sotheby's tells how Émile-Maurice Hermès, grandson of the founder, saw the new fastener in North America in 1916, and how Hermès secured rights to use it on leather goods and introduced it in this bag in 1923. Christie's dates the house's exclusive French rights to the zip to 1922. The bag was first called le sac pour l'auto and later renamed Bolide, an old word for a fireball or meteor that also evoked fast sports cars.
The Bolide is a dome-shaped carry-all with a single zip, a removable strap and an oval patch on the front for a monogram. It comes in a soft Mou style and a structured Rigide style, most often in Clemence, Epsom or Sikkim leather. The original is made in 27, 31, 35 and 45 cm sizes; the later Bolide 1923, without the oval patch, comes as a Mini, 25 and 30.
Variants include the Mini, introduced around 2011, the Bolide 1923 Smile (2020), and the Bolide On Wheels of 2022, a nod to its origins as a travel bag.