How Fendi’s ‘Baguette’ Bag Conquered the World
By now, it’s common knowledge that many cultural phenomena can be traced back to the moment they were first featured on HBO’s landmark series Sex and the City: sugary Cosmopolitans, sky-high Manolo Blahniks, and Brazilian waxes all had their moments in the sun thanks to Carrie Bradshaw and friends. But the iconic Fendi Baguette, an enduring It Bag which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a Baguette-centric Fendi show at New York Fashion Week on Friday, is a subtler but just as enduring Sex symbol.
Little is known about the Fendi show this week, but rumors are in the air: Marc Jacobs might have collaborated with the brand on the Baguette presentation. Otherwise, the details are very much under wraps.
In 2022, Baguettes have reassumed the ubiquitous and influential spot they previously held at their last popularity apex—today, they can be seen on the arms of moneyed Instagram influencers and scruffy Dimes Square scene kids alike, and Fendi’s September NYFW presentation will almost certainly include an innovative take on the classic shape. New versions are being churned out all the time to meet fresh demand. Fendi declined to comment to The Daily Beast for this story.
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The little handbag, its shape in particular, is by this point instantly recognizable to almost anyone, including the most aesthetically disinterested casual shopper: modestly rectangular and adorned with an adjustable strap, the baguette is designed to be tucked neatly under one’s arm as she darts in and out of foot traffic on her way to someplace fabulous.
Over the years, the bag has been endlessly marketed in a range of different fabrics: canvas, leather, and shimmering sequins have all been applied to the brilliantly simple template, enhancing the idea that this is a bag for everyone. Plus, as luxury handbags go, they’re fairly reasonably priced on the resale market: on eBay, a gently used early-aughts Baguette can be yours for only $250.
A “Baguette” spotted in the wild.
“Something so special about the Baguette was that it stayed consistent in shape, but there were so many different iterations, and they were so playful,” Caitlin Donovan, VP of the Handbags & Accessories Department at Christie’s auction house, told The Daily Beast. Baguettes evolved, Donovan said, “from a time when bags were ladylike and top-handled, and here we have a bag that was meant to be worn over your shoulder, which really was synonymous with the modern woman, but also the idea that it was bedazzled and jeweled and had that big Fendi buckle was really noticeable. People really started paying attention to luxury items in a different way.”
Of course, the Baguette didn’t take off solely thanks to SATC; it was merely enhanced by the Sarah Jessica Parker’s premium spotlight. (“Oh, this is not a bag,” she purrs to a would-be robber. “It’s a Baguette.”)
The ingenious brainchild of Silvia Venturini Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s dearly departed creative director, the snug little handbag was a hit essentially as soon as it debuted in 1997: Fendi and Lagerfeld conceived of the purse as the handbag equivalent of tucking a freshly baked French baguette under your arm as you dashed home from the market along the Seine.
“Over 300,000 Baguette bags have been sold since 1997, helping increase the company’s overall revenues 10 percent over the past two years,” Dana Thomas, a contributing editor for British Vogue and the author of Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, wrote in Newsweek in 1999. In that same year, Bernard Arnault of LVMH bought a stake in Fendi before finally acquiring ownership stakes in 2001.
Carrie Bradshaw’s “Baguette” by Fendi goes on view during the “Bags: Inside Out” press view at Victoria and Albert Museum on Dec. 8, 2020, in London.
“The Baguette was kind of discreet, and it was just what you needed,” Thomas told The Daily Beast. “You could fit your cellphone in in it, which were much bigger than they are now. You could throw in your lipstick, mad money and your keys and you’re out the door. You didn’t have to worry about it, it wasn’t weighing your shoulder down and it didn’t bother you. It was kind of a chic alternative to the Prada knapsack.”
Today, Baguette-inspired bags are everywhere on the luxury market, but the one that springs chiefly to mind is the Balenciaga Le Cagole; the brutally cool little bag may be decked out in Demna’s signature heavy metal hardware, but its silhouette is unmistakably Baguette-ish.
“Something to consider is that there was a moment when Fendi Baguettes were so trendy, and then, as is often the case with very trendy bags, it’s in one season and then next season it’s last season’s bag,” Donovan said. “But with this renaissance of ’90s fashion, we’ve noticed people really looking for, coveting and wanting [Baguettes], and paying top dollar for them. It’s been nice to see the transition back to this being a really coveted and collectable item from people who are very highly praised and respected in fashion.”
Pretty much every couture brand worth its salt offers a handbag these days, but the Fendi Baguette, Thomas says, still stands out because “it gave you a freedom, but a feminine freedom. It was a feminine freedom in that you weren’t a slave to your handbag. You could just sling it under your arm, and it gave you free hands. You could keep doing stuff without having one hand tied up by carrying a handbag.”
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