Fendi

Fendi is the Roman house that turned an accessory into an event. The Baguette, launched in 1997, is the bag most credited with starting the it-bag era, and Fendi has spent the years since proving it can pull the trick again without exhausting the idea. The house has been making fur and leather in Rome since 1925.

Fendi was run by five sisters for half a century, and it hired a twenty-something Karl Lagerfeld in 1965 on a contract he kept for fifty-four years, the longest designer tenure in fashion.

Behind the brand

History of Fendi

Adele and Edoardo Fendi opened a fur and leather workshop on Via del Plebiscito in Rome in 1925. Their five daughters, Paola, Anna, Franca, Carla and Alda, took over and ran the house together.

In 1965 they brought in Karl Lagerfeld, who drew the double-F logo as shorthand for “Fun Furs” and set about treating fur as a fabric to be cut, dyed, perforated and lightened rather than displayed. He stayed until his death in 2019, a fifty-four-year run that is the longest designer tenure in fashion.

Silvia Venturini Fendi, Anna’s daughter, joined the accessories side and produced the Baguette in 1997, then the Spy bag in 2005. LVMH acquired control in 2001, and Kim Jones led the women’s and couture collections from 2020. Silvia Venturini Fendi went on to lead accessories and menswear, keeping a family member in the studio a century after the first shop opened.

The Fendi bags

The Baguette is the house’s most important object. Silvia Venturini Fendi designed it in 1997 to be carried tucked under the arm like a French loaf, Carrie Bradshaw made it famous on Sex and the City, and it now comes in hundreds of variations, from sequins to embroidery to hand-beaded and needlepoint editions. The Peekaboo, launched in 2008, is the grown-up alternative, a structured bag with two compartments and an interior meant to be seen. The First arrived in 2021 as Kim Jones’s signature piece, built around an oversized curved F clasp, and the Sunshine tote, the Mon Trésor bucket and the cult 2005 Spy bag fill out a lineup we rank in our guide to the best Fendi bags.

Selleria is the construction-led line. It is hand-stitched in Cuoio Romano leather using the saddle-making techniques the workshop started with, sewn with a single waxed thread and finished with a numbered tag.

Fendi eyewear

Sunglasses are Fendi’s real second act, and they draw almost as much search as the bags. The oversized frames carry the FF logo on the temple or, on the popular styles, spelled across the lenses themselves. That made them a recognizable object the way the Baguette did for handbags. They cost well below the leather goods and are the most common way into the brand, along with a logo belt or a card holder.

Craftsmanship and materials

Fendi’s leather work is Roman, and the house has kept it that way, with production and its headquarters at the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in the city’s EUR district. The double-F Zucca print that covers the canvas bags is built from two mirrored letters, one upright and one inverted, and a genuine one runs symmetrically and matches across every seam. The Selleria pieces are a direct continuation of the 1925 workshop, hand-sewn and numbered by a single artisan.

The house trains embroiderers and leatherworkers in its own ateliers rather than buying the work in. That in-house craft is the only reason the Baguette’s endless material variations are possible.

How to spot a real Fendi bag

Start with the FF canvas. The double-F Zucca pattern is symmetrical, and on a real bag it lines up cleanly across seams and folds rather than running crooked or cut off mid-letter. The “FENDI” heat stamp and the “made in Italy” mark should be crisp and evenly spaced, pressed cleanly into the leather. Inside, a genuine Fendi carries a serial and authenticity tag, and Selleria pieces add the hand-numbered tag that comes with the saddle-stitched line. Check that the hardware is solid and weighty, the stitching is even, and the lining is clean. Because the vintage Baguette and the Spy bag are among the most faked bags on the resale market, buy an older piece through a reseller that authenticates before it lists.

Where to buy Fendi

Fendi sells through its own boutiques, its official site, department stores and luxury etailers. The Baguette is the piece worth seeing in person, since the material versions vary enormously in weight and formality. The vintage Baguette is a category of its own on the resale market, so a specialist authenticator is the safer route to an early one. Small leather goods and eyewear are the accessible entry points.

Fendi price

Fendi prices alongside Prada and Gucci. Small leather goods start in the mid hundreds, the Baguette and the Peekaboo run from the low to mid thousands, and the embellished editions climb well beyond that. Sunglasses run in the low-to-mid hundreds. If you want the craft rather than the logo, the Selleria pieces are the ones with the hand-stitching, and they age far better than the printed canvas.