In 1997, Silvia Venturini Fendi introduced the Fendi ‘Baguette’ handbag, a miniature shoulder bag named for the way it nestles under the arm – as one might carry the French loaf after an early morning trip to the boulangerie.
25 years on, as part of the designer’s A/W 2023 menswear collection for the Italian house, Venturini Fendi playfully revisited the handbag’s inspirations, with models carrying a gleefully surreal accessory: a French baguette, albeit here rendered in luxurious shearling.
Poking out from tote bags, grasped under the arm, or slung across the back as a case for an umbrella, it epitomised the irreverent approach Venturini Fendi brings to her menswear collections. This season, she conjured an after-dark mood, the collection’s languid silhouettes and swathes of shimmering embellishment recalling rollers discos and Studio 54, with the bread-shaped accessory providing an unexpected – but satiating – juxtaposition.
Fendi reinvents the baguette
One of the bread-shaped bags, as first shown at the house’s A/W 2023 runway show in January
The ‘Baguette’ handbag itself – which includes a number of iterations for men – remains Fendi’s most well-known accessory, endlessly riffed upon in the house’s collections in various sizes, colours and shapes. Last September, it celebrated its 25th anniversary with a blockbuster show at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom as part of the city’s fashion week.
A triumphant ode to the style, the runway show featured collaborations with Tiffany & Co, Marc Jacobs and the actress Sarah Jessica Parker – the latter canonised the Baguette with her role as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City.
This article appears in the November 2023 Art Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.