Let’s talk about the baguette

BY NINA TUCKER

If you are thinking of a stick of bread, this is even more delicious.

It’s not a bag, it’s a Fendi baguette.” Sarah Jessica Parker uttered a compilation of those words often in Sex and the City (SATC), making the Fendi purse the world’s first ‘it’ bag. It came as she was held at gunpoint when a robber demanded she hand over her bag. Famously, it was much more than that.

The minds of Silvia Venturini Fendi, granddaughter of the Fendi founders, and Karl Lagerfeld, artistic director, collaborated to create the baguette with its prominent rectangular shape, small strap, and single-flap closure.

It nods to the way French women would return from their local bakery with a baguette under their arm. Built to be as elegant as bread, it became hugely popular—so much so that Fendi temporarily discontinued it when counterfeits flooded the market.

Catapulted to a craze under Sarah’s character Carrie Bradshaw’s arm, Fendi began producing it in many new iterations, including a collection with the SATC star for the bag’s 25th anniversary. Collaborations with the likes of Marc Jacobs and Tiffany & Co. also ensued in the years following the show’s release in 1998, placing the baguette firmly within fashion’s Hall of Fame. The show’s reboot in 2021, And Just Like That, acknowledged the bag’s impact by returning it to its rightful place, swung over Carrie’s arm.

Its celebrity status means it’s often reinterpreted by other brands and an easily accessible underarm accessory.

Image: Everyday mini baguette, Brie Leon