Mini Kelly Size Guide: Kelly 20 II in cm, the 12 vs 16 cm Height Question, and What Fits

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The modern Mini Kelly is the Kelly 20 II: 20 × 12 × 6 cm (7.9 × 4.7 × 2.4 in) in Sellier construction, with a 5 cm handle drop and a 48 cm strap drop. It carries no padlock, no keys and no clochette. Published heights for the same bag also appear as 14 cm and 16 cm, so confirm the measuring point before comparing two listings.

The bag people search for as a Mini Kelly is the Hermès Kelly 20 II: 20 × 12 × 6 cm (7.9 × 4.7 × 2.4 in) in Sellier construction, with a 5 cm handle drop and a 48 cm strap drop, and no padlock, keys or clochette. That is the figure two independent publishers agree on centimetre for centimetre — and it is not the figure every seller will quote you, which is the real problem with this bag.

This page sets out the published numbers for the Kelly 20 II and the tiers around it, says plainly where the sources contradict each other, and explains what a 20 cm-wide Kelly will and will not carry. Everything below is quoted from published size tables, reference archives and owner measurements; nothing here is estimated. Where two sources disagree, both figures are printed and neither is averaged away.

Measured by the two publishers who agree, the modern Mini Kelly is the Kelly 20 II at 20 × 12 × 6 cm (7.9 × 4.7 × 2.4 in), with a 5 cm (2 in) handle drop and a 48 cm (19 in) shoulder-strap drop. That width and depth hold across every published source; the height does not, because 14 cm and 16 cm figures also circulate for the same nickname, and they describe either a different measuring point or the older, taller Kelly 20 that stopped production in 2009. The bag is made in Sellier construction only, so the body stays rigid and square. It has no padlock, no keys and no clochette, closing on the touret turn-lock alone, and its interior is one slip pocket over a leather lining. A standard or compact phone fits; a Pro Max does not.

One nickname, three bags: what “Mini Kelly” is really pointing at

Start with the name, because it is doing more work than it should.

The current bag is the Kelly 20 II, which Hermès lists in its own Kelly family as the Kelly II sellier mini bag — the word “mini” attached to a second-generation Kelly 20, not a separate silhouette. It reaches the market as the modern Mini Kelly after a 2016 relaunch.

Behind it sits an older Kelly 20. One archive describes the original from the 1980s and 1990s as “slightly taller, with a more elegant vintage appeal and a larger top handle” — and it says a 1957 first appearance, a 1980 change to the rounded bracelet-style top handle, and a discontinuation in 2009 all belong to that earlier line. An auction house gives the first version of that older mini as 20 cm wide, 18 cm high and 14 cm deep, with a handle that collectors nicknamed for its ears; the same auction house puts the 2016-onward Kelly 20 II at roughly 20 × 14 × 6 cm.

Two things follow. First, a listing that says “Mini Kelly” without a generation is ambiguous, and a 14 cm or 16 cm height is often a clue that the seller is describing the old shape or a handle-inclusive measurement rather than the body of the current bag. Second, the word “Mini Kelly I” itself splits: one reference applies it to the pre-2009 Kelly 20, while an auction house records that many collectors call the Kelly Pochette the Mini Kelly I because it came first. The same three words, two different bags.

The third bag in the room is the Kelly Pochette: 21.6 × 13.3 × 7 cm (8.5 × 5.25 × 2.75 in), designed by Jean Paul Gaultier in autumn/winter 2004, with a flatter and wider handle set lower on the body, no strap and no bag feet.

Every Kelly tier on one table, from the Micro 15 to the 50

A Mini Kelly only makes sense against the rungs above it, so here is the whole ladder. Centimetres come from the published tables named under each row; inches are converted at 2.54 cm per inch.

Mini Kelly size in cm: the Kelly 20 II numbers

The Mini Kelly — the Kelly 20 II — is published at 20 × 12 × 6 cm (7.9 × 4.7 × 2.4 in), with a 5 cm (2.0 in) handle drop and a 48 cm (19.0 in) strap drop. That is the figure SACLÀB and Petite in Paris both print, and it sits directly under the Micro Kelly 15 (15 × 11 × 5 cm) and above the Kelly Pochette (21.6 × 13.3 × 7 cm). Height is the one figure that moves between sources: Christie’s describes the modern-era Kelly 20 II at roughly 20 × 14 × 6 cm, and the first-generation Mini Kelly I at 20 × 18 × 14 cm.

The three-column view most buyers arrive with is narrower, and these are the published pairs for it:

Two rows above deserve a warning label. The Kelly 40 and Kelly 50 figures come from single publishers, and one of those publishers contradicts itself: its main table gives the 50 a depth of 18 cm, while its own height-width-depth table for the same bag gives 25 cm — a 7 cm spread, plus a 2 cm difference in height between the two tables. Treat the top of the ladder as an open question and ask for a tape photo.

The Kelly 20 II numbers, and the three published heights behind them

Here is the same tier measured by everyone who has published a figure for it.

Read down the height column and you get 12, 12, 14, 16, 18, 11.4, 12.7 and 12 — which is why buyers keep asking a question that looks simple and keeps getting different answers.

Three things are worth separating out of that clutter.

Six published sources give the Kelly 20 II six different heights. SACLÀB and Petite in Paris both print 20 × 12 × 6 cm. Christie’s gives the modern-era bag as approximately 20 × 14 × 6 cm, and the first-generation mini as 20 × 18 × 14 cm with its bracelet-style handle. Bragmybag publishes 20 × 16 × 10 cm in one table and the same bag as 16 × 20 × 10 cm under an H × W × D header in another. The inch-based references sit nearer the lower figure — 7.5 × 5 × 2.25 in from FASHIONPHILE, 7.5 × 4.5 × 2.2 in from Madison Avenue Couture — and one owner measured her own bag at 19 × 12 × 5.5 cm. Width and depth stay stable at 19–20 cm and 5.5–6 cm throughout; only the height moves, and with it the impression of what the bag holds.

The width barely moves. Every published triple except one inch-based pair lands at 19–20 cm wide. If a listing claims a 24 cm “Mini Kelly”, the seller is either describing a different tier or measuring the flap span rather than the base.

The 16 cm figure leaks into other people’s tables. Petite in Paris publishes 20 × 12 × 6 cm and, in the same row, the inches “7.8 × 6.3 × 4”. Converted back, 6.3 in is 16 cm and 4 in is 10.2 cm — exactly Bragmybag’s centimetres for the same bag. So one of the most-copied size pages on the internet carries the higher figure in its inch column while its centimetre column carries the lower one. If you only read the inches, you inherit the 16 cm height without being told.

The old shape explains part of the rest. The 18 cm height and 14 cm depth belong to the first-generation mini, and the 14 cm height belongs to the auction house’s description of the modern line. Neither is a mismeasurement of a current Kelly 20 II so much as a description of a different bag or a different point on the same bag.

The strap: 48 cm of drop, and four different totals in print

For a small bag, the strap is where the most disagreement sits.

Note what that table is telling you: the drop figures two publishers give (48 and 45.7 cm) are close enough to be the same strap measured slightly differently, but the total length figures span 85 to 97.5 cm, and the two most quotable numbers — 97.5 cm and 48 cm — do not come from the same measurement method. A 48 cm drop and a 97.5 cm strap can both be true at once, because one measures from the top of the strap to the bag and the other measures the strap laid flat, end to end, including hardware.

There is a second split: one specification table lists the strap as adjustable and removable, while the owner who measured 97 cm describes a strap with no adjustment at all. Both statements can survive only if the line has used more than one strap. If crossbody wear matters to you — and on a 20 cm bag it is most of the point — ask for two photos: the strap laid flat with a tape, and the buckle or adjustment points in close-up.

The current Mini Kelly also does not behave the way people expect for other reasons: it sits lower and tighter than the Kelly 25, whose 9 cm handle drop accepts a hand or a forearm, where the Kelly 20’s 5 cm drop is a fingers-only handle.

Sellier only: what the Kelly 20 has and what it does not

The Kelly 20 is the tier that exists only in Sellier — rigid panels with the seams turned outward and visible. Two consequences follow, and buyers hit both.

Inside and out, the parts list is shorter than on a larger Kelly:

• No padlock, no keys, no clochette. Two independent references state this directly. The closure is the same two slim leather straps held by the touret turn-lock.
• Hardware comes in palladium (silver) or gold, and the front plate carries the house stamp. One specification table still lists the Mini Kelly II with a clochette, a lock and two keys — that entry cannot be right for this tier, and it is worth knowing which table to stop trusting.
• Metal feet at the base, which the Kelly Pochette does not have.
• One interior slip pocket, with the interior fully lined in leather.
• A rolled, tubular top handle, not the flatter handle of the Pochette.

On leather, the two regulars are Epsom — a stamped calfskin, lightweight and unusually scratch-resistant, introduced in 2004, which gives the small body its rigid square — and Chèvre Mysore, a goatskin from the 1990s with a fine grain and a lustre that Hermès otherwise uses mainly for linings. One owner’s note is the practical one: an Epsom mini “can be a little rigid when opening and closing”. Exotics (Niloticus crocodile, ostrich, alligator) turn up too, and the Pochette’s usual leather is the softer, more colour-hungry Swift, which scratches more easily than Epsom.

What actually goes inside a 20 cm Kelly

The interior is narrow, and the phone is the deciding item. Names below are the items the sources tested, not a general promise about capacity.

Two owner descriptions are worth keeping in mind, because they disagree in a useful way. One carries a key pouch, lip balm and a 12 Pro; the other keeps a cardholder, lipstick and keys, and deliberately leaves her phone out because she does not want to stretch the leather. Both are describing the same bag. The difference is how much give the owner is willing to accept at the flap.

If your phone is a Pro Max, this is the point to step sideways rather than up. The Kelly Pochette is 1.6 cm wider and 1 cm deeper than the Kelly 20, with a more rectangular interior, and it handles a larger phone better — but it has no strap and no feet, so it is a clutch, not a crossbody. The Kelly 25 at 25 × 19 × 9 cm is the smallest tier where a full everyday load stops being a negotiation.

Two of the same house, side by side: Kelly 20 against Kelly 25

Nobody choosing between these two is deciding on width alone. The 5 cm of difference in width arrives with 9 cm of difference in height, 3 cm in depth, 4 cm more handle drop and a shorter strap drop.

The counter-intuitive column is the strap: the smaller bag has the longer drop. A 48 cm drop on a 20 cm bag hangs it at a different point on the body than a 42 cm drop on a 25 cm bag, which is why two people of the same height can prefer different tiers here. The published second pair of figures for the Kelly 25 sits on the Kelly 25 versus 28 page if you want both sets side by side, the two-handle equivalent of that one-tier step is on the Birkin 25 versus 30 page, and the tier-by-tier numbers for the whole line are on the Birkin versus Kelly comparison.

Checking a Kelly 20 listing when no tape is in the photo

A photograph settles shape questions quickly and size questions almost never. What it does well: the outline, the handle-to-body proportion, whether the silhouette is trapezoidal or rounded, whether the front straps meet a turn-lock, and whether there are feet on the base. What it cannot do: give you centimetres, tell you which generation you are looking at, show you the leather’s behaviour over time, or reveal whether the strap is the adjustable version.

The generation question is the one no photo answers reliably. Two shapes share the nickname, one of them stopped being made in 2009, and a listing that mixes an old photograph with current language will not announce itself. If the height reads 14 cm or 16 cm rather than 12 cm, ask which measuring point was used before concluding anything.

What to send us

Tell us which way you are leaning and the two or three measurements that matter to you — phone size, whether you want crossbody, and the height of the tallest item you carry daily. We will send current catalog photos of the specific piece with a tape across the base, the handle in profile and the strap laid flat, and we will confirm the leather, the hardware tone and the closure before you commit. Open a WhatsApp chat with your reference and phone model, browse the Bags Catalog for every brand album, or read the Hermès bag gallery highlights for current photography.

Sources behind the Kelly 20 figures on this page

• SACLÀB, Hermès size charts and the Mini Kelly reference (saclab.com/hermes-sizes/, saclab.com/hermes-mini-kelly/) — Kelly Mini row 20 × 12 × 6 cm, Kelly 25 25 × 18 × 10 cm, leather notes, naming of the 2016 relaunch.
• Petite in Paris, Hermès Kelly size guide and Mini Kelly review — 20 × 12 × 6 cm, handle drop 5 cm, shoulder strap drop 48 cm, and the inch column that disagrees with its own centimetres.
• Christie’s, collecting guide to the mini Kelly — the first-generation 20 × 18 × 14 cm shape, the modern-era ~20 × 14 × 6 cm, and the note that many collectors call the Pochette the Mini Kelly I.
• FASHIONPHILE Academy — Mini Kelly 7.5 × 5 × 2.25 in, the parts list (no lock, no clochette, one slip pocket, metal feet), Epsom and Chèvre Mysore, and the Swift comparison with the Pochette.
• Madison Avenue Couture — Kelly 20 at 7.5 × 4.5 × 2.2 in, the Sellier-only rule, and the note that all house hardware is brass, plated per piece.
• Bragmybag — Mini Kelly II 20 × 16 × 10 cm and the same bag written as 16 × 20 × 10 cm under an “H x W x D” header, plus the specification row that lists a lock and two keys.
• Steffy’s Style — an owner measuring her own bag at 19 × 12 × 5.5 cm with a 97 cm strap, and the note that Epsom feels rigid at the flap.

Sources were checked on 3 October 2026. Where two of them disagree, both figures are printed above and neither has been averaged or adjusted. The mini-tier numbers also feed the generated Luxury Bag Size Index, which keeps the same published centimetres in one table with a source page per row.