Bella Hadid's Hottest Cannes Plus-One Is a Coach Self-Help Book Bag Charm
The literary It girl look is going international.
First, Bella Hadid touched down at the Cannes Film Festival making sneakerheads jealous with her metallic Puma sneakers. Then, she sent amateur style historians reeling with her slate of vintage Chanel sets and Alaïa dresses. But on May 18, she became the envy of both fashion girls and book club presidents with her latest Coach bag and custom book charm.
Hadid greeted crowds of fans outside the famed Hôtel Martinez in a classically Hadid outfit: a boho-chic top with beaded ruffles and an entirely sheer bodice; a pair of khaki pants, and pointed-toe stilettos. She finished the look with oversize sunglasses and a leather Coach shoulder bag, two of her signature accessories no matter where she's traveling. (Hadid, as fans know, has enough Coach bags to fill an entire closet.)
Bella Hadid returned to the Hôtel Martinez in Cannes, France, with a Coach bag on her arm.
On a typical day in Cannes, Bella Hadid's see-through shirt would get all the headlines. During her 2024 trip to the French Riviera, Hadid packed several naked dresses and barely-there street style outfits—looks that drew plenty of eyes and that felt like the last chapter of a style era before the film festival's dress code nudity ban in 2025.
This time, not even a nearly-naked shirt could distract from the custom bag charm Hadid paired to her Coach bag. She completed her under-the-radar Coach Chelsea bag with a bespoke, miniature version of The Book of Answers by Carol Bolt. It's a self-help book with a game-night premise: Silently ask yourself a question, then open the book to a random page and find the answer. Over one million copies of the book have sold since its 1999 debut, but only one was shrunk down into a mini version for Bella Hadid to carry around the Croissette.
Hadid accessorized with a Coach Chelsea shoulder bag—and a completely bespoke charm.
Hadid carried a custom charm version of The Book of Answers, a self-help book published in 1999.
Bella Hadid is hardly the first It girl to tout her TBR list in public. Stars from Dua Lipa to Kaia Gerber have paired their book clubs with stacks-inspired T-shirts and totes. Coach's own book charms became a viral sensation earlier this spring, when Elle Fanning, Storm Reid, and other front-row stars carried theirs to the Coach Fall 2026 fashion show.
Bella Hadid's Cannes book charm says it's full of answers, but it's actually raising more questions. How many other custom tomes is Coach making for its celebrity clientele? Is a book-charm Chelsea bag bound to become the next Brooklyn bag—that is, the style absolutely everyone is wearing? Here's one certainty: Bella Hadid's Cannes wardrobe is once again worth bookmarking.
