Fendi Beaded Baguette

Two of Fendi’s most iconic bags are the Peekaboo and the Baguette. First released in 1997, the latter rose to fame along with Carrie Bradshaw, the Sex and the City character portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker. Much has changed since Silvia Venturini Fendi unveiled the Baguette bag back then.

The original “it” bag turned 25 in 2022, and the Baguette’s silver anniversary bash began with a runway presentation at the Hammerstein Ballroom, which is located in New York City, the setting of the Baguette’s ascent into the ranks of fashion’s most wanted. It happened this way: In the third season of Sex in the City, a thief accosted Parker’s character and demanded her Manolos, her jewelry and her purple-sequined “bag.” “It’s a Baguette,” she corrected. And a star was born.

As part of a celebration of the Baguette, Fendi and Versace teamed up on the delightfully outrageous Fendace Baguette, a crystal-encrusted bag that features a gold Versace logo.

The Fendace Baguette is “a collaboration between two of Italy’s most revered houses, Fendi and Versace” says Steven Bond, proprietor of Montreal’s Carte Blanche. It changed the world of fashion, and the fashion itself. “Fendi is not a flashy brand,” he explains, but through the filter of Donatella Versace’s imagination, there is glitter and sass. “Versace took this classic style and made it sparkle. It references the chainmail dress that [Gianni] Versace designed before he died.” The Fendace Baguette is a sparkling beauty that tells the tale of one of the fashion industry’s biggest changes: the embrace of collaborations. The movement began in 2004, with the high-fashion-comes-to-mass-market partnership between H&M and Karl Lagerfeld.

Lagerfeld’s name is well known to enthusiasts of vintage Fendi bags. The name Fendi had been around for decades when the young German designer took the creative helm at the company in 1965. But it was not until then, however, that the Italian brand became a world-renowned fashion house. Lagerfeld produced four to five collections yearly for Fendi — and is celebrated for the shoes, purses and other pieces he created for the brand.

Find vintage beaded Fendi Baguette bags on 1stDibs.

Like other major European luxury fashion houses, Fendi started small. Adele Casagrande was an Italian creative who loved fashion and sold leather and fur accessories from a tiny workshop she opened in Rome in 1918. However, after marrying Edoardo Fendi in 1925, her business model was altered dramatically. Together, the couple changed the boutique’s name to Fendi and moved into a bigger storefront, which quickly became the favorite shop of women all over Italy’s capital city for furs and leathers, such as handbags, coats and accessories.

As time moved on for Adele and Edoardo, the couple began to distribute more responsibility to their five daughters, who assumed management of the company during the 1950s. Fendi’s audience broadened and its profitability has soared over the years, owing to the brand’s fresh perspective on fashion world happenings and innovative sensibility. The maison also has a distinctive relationship with old-world Italian craftsmanship. The Selleria bags were the work of master saddlers in Rome, and Fendi partnered with lace artisans in southern Italy as well as craftsmen in the east trained in the intrecciato (intertwined) technique (an idea that Adele introduced during the 1940s), which, in Fendi’s case, sees an interwoven leather fabric integrated in the creation of its handbags, countering leather’s traditional rigidity with a bag that is soft, versatile and fitted with an alluring slouchy curve.

It wasn’t until 1965, however, when a young German designer named Karl Lagerfeld took the creative helm that Fendi became a world-renowned fashion house. In fact, Lagerfeld, who produced four to five collections yearly for the brand, is credited with creating Fendi’s instantly recognizable double-F logo (which stands for “Fun Furs”) in “less than five seconds.” Until Lagerfeld started designing for the brand, fur was a material mostly associated with heavy coats that few people actually wore. Lagerfeld reimagined fur in creative ways, using it as an accent on purses, cuffs on dress sleeves and collars on wool coats.

Over the ensuing years, Fendi has broken into the home-goods market with Fendi Casa and has become synonymous with luxury fashion, producing such pieces as the iconic Baguette, which was rendered ever popular on the television series Sex and the City. In fact, an entire episode during the third season was dedicated to the “original It bag,” a slim accessory tapered in a manner that recalls its namesake, designed in 1997 by Adele and Edoardo’s granddaughter Silvia Venturini Fendi, who was named creative director of accessories three years earlier.

Perhaps just as well known as its vintage Baguette handbags and creative use of fur is the brand’s devotion to its Italian roots. In 2013, Fendi donated more than 2 million euros to restore Rome’s Trevi Fountain, and when it was reopened to visitors, Fendi hosted its Autumn/Winter 2017 show on top of the landmark.

Fendi was a family-controlled brand until 1999 and is now owned by LVMH. In late 2020, British fashion designer Kim Jones was named the house’s artistic director for womens wear.

Find a wide variety of vintage Fendi handbags and purses, clothing and other accessories on 1stDibs.

An integral part of fashion, handbags and purses have been indispensable accessories ever since we began to carry around personal items. Level of craftsmanship, style and shape matters — from coin purses in ancient Greece to early 20th-century opera bags and onward, handbags have evolved considerably over the years to meet our needs and desires, whether or not you happen to be prioritizing functionality over a flashy exterior.

Once, a single “It” handbag ruled each fashion season. No more. Today, lovers of vintage handbags are savvier and have a wider range of shopping options. Nevertheless, classics created by the likes of Louis Vuitton, Dior and Balenciaga still rule.

“It is not a fashion bag — it is a statement bag,” says Mightychic's Debra Kent of Hermès's widely beloved accessories. “When you carry an iconic Hermès bag — Birkin, Kelly, Constance — no one knows how long you have been into this culture or if you are a newbie. Your status is validated immediately.”

First released in 1997, Fendi's Baguette rose to fame along with Carrie Bradshaw, the Sex and the City character portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker. Recently, the design has seen such a resurgence in popularity that Fendi has reissued it.

They are part of design history, so owning a handbag has meaning. As New York–based fashion historian Sarah C. Byrd says, “You have made the choice to invest in this piece because you understand the value of it in the past and in the future to come.”

From a 1980s Chanel black leather quilted mini buckle bag to the rare Hermès Birkin 30cm Himalayan with diamond hardware to a range of 19th-century bags, find a rich variety of vintage and designer handbags and purses spanning numerous brands on 1stDibs — seasonal “It” designation no longer needed.