The Fendi Baguette Is Back—Not That It Ever Really Went Away

Fashion has a short memory. Every season arrives carrying the promise that whatever came before no longer matters. And yet the Fendi Baguette remains stubbornly present. It should, by all logic, have remained where it began—tucked beneath the arms of late-1990s scenesters, immortalized in paparazzi photographs—and been archived alongside the accessories that briefly defined an era. Instead, nearly three decades after its 1997 debut, the shoulder bag designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi continues to move through fashion with remarkable ease.

Its latest revival takes shape under recently appointed chief creative officer Maria Grazia Chiuri, who has re-issued 20 archival versions of the Baguette for her first Fendi collection. The gesture is not simply nostalgic—few accessories have become so synonymous with the house and its heritage. The Baguette arrived at precisely the moment luxury fashion was becoming a part of popular culture. Designed to be carried like a loaf of French bread, it quickly escaped the confines of magazines and took on a life of its own. Its most famous appearance was in Sex and the City, when Carrie Bradshaw corrected a mugger who called it a bag while attempting to steal it: “It’s a Baguette.”

Unlike most luxury accessories at the time, the Baguette was never defined by a single iteration. More than 1,000 versions have been produced since 1997, ranging from sequin-, denim-, and fur-covered editions to elaborate hand-embroidered creations and limited-run collaborations. Many now circulate as collector’s items, and vintage Baguettes—particularly heavily embellished ones from the late 1990s and early 2000s—have become increasingly sought-after on the secondary market. The house’s return to its archives acknowledges a fascination that has never really faded.

The most compelling of the reissues revisits Fendi’s long-running partnership with Chanakya, the Mumbai atelier that has collaborated with the brand over the years. The new model seen here requires 138 hours of handwork and draws on mirror-embellishment traditions found across South Asia and beyond, where reflective surfaces are often associated with protection and warding off the evil eye. Hundreds of tiny mirrors are integrated directly into the bag, creating a surface that appears to shift in the light. It’s a reminder that some of the Baguette’s most enduring innovations have come not from new materials or technologies, but from the extraordinary skills of the people making it.

Long before she was one of fashion’s most influential creative directors, Chiuri was an accessories designer. Throughout her career, she has repeatedly returned to the idea that handbags should be seen as meaningful personal objects rather than just luxury goods. They become repositories for personality, carrying traces of the people who own them long after trends have passed. Perhaps that is why the Baguette continues to resonate: Nearly 30 years on, it remains one of the few fashion objects that manage to feel both familiar and new.

Lead collage: Fendi’s dazzling new Baguette (center) draws on ancient handicraft traditions, with hundreds of talismanic mirrors embroidered by artisans from the Chanakya School of Craft, in India. Clockwise from top: a swatch of red bandhani fabric with delicate mirror work; Sarah Jessica Parker at a Sex and the City premiere in Los Angeles, 2000; The Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Mirrors) at Amber Fort, Amer, Rajasthan, India; a girl in France holding baguettes, 1962

Collage credits: clockwise from top, Atul and Jogi Images LLP.; Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images; Raimund Franken/imagebroker/Shutterstock; Rudolf Dietrich/ullstein bild via Getty Images. Center: Courtesy of Fendi.