Advertisement
The Fendi Baguette turns 25: Kim Kardashian, Sarah Jessica Parker help celebrate milestone for the first It bag
- The handbag that became a pop culture phenomenon thanks to Sex and the City is as coveted as ever – these days Gen Z-ers raid their mothers’ wardrobes for one
- To mark its 25th anniversary, its creator, Silvia Venturini Fendi, and Kim Jones released a collaborative collection in New York with Marc Jacobs and Tiffany & Co.
4-MIN READ4-MIN
If there is an item that has single-handedly changed the course of recent fashion history, it has to be the Fendi Baguette.
First released in 1997 and immortalised as a pop culture phenomenon in television series Sex and the City – “It’s a Baguette!” gasps Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, to a man trying to rob her in a very New York scene – the Baguette was the brainchild of Silvia Venturini Fendi, the family scion who still designs menswear and accessories for the Italian brand.
While you are right in thinking that there are plenty of other bags that predate the Baguette and have made history, the Baguette was the first It bag and instrumental in turning fashion into an accessory-driven global industry in which bags, not clothes, became the real focus.
Advertisement
The runaway success of the Baguette introduced previously unheard-of practices such as waiting lists to get your hands on a coveted bag, as luxury customers began to see one as the ultimate status symbol. Fashion companies quickly realised that handbags, which have much higher margins than clothes, would be their bread and butter and the first item that consumers would come to associate with their labels.
“It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years,” Venturini Fendi says in an interview in New York moments before an event held to commemorate the milestone.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x