Bags of bags, pockets upon pockets, and plenty of logos: Silvia Venturini Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld were in utility mode at Fendi today. There were exaggerated external tan leather pockets on a transparent vinyl raincoat worn by Adwoa Aboah: that started it. Then there were puffy poacher pockets on silk blouses and a utility jacket and brown leather jackets, pockets that had their own smaller pockets on top of them, and cargo pants and parkas with multiple pockets. Buckled in there, too, was the option of a tool kit belt with pockets hanging off it.
Fendi is witnessing a generational shift in terms of who it appeals to; Venturini Fendi has been watching it happen on social media. “I’ve seen on Instagram all the young kids wearing their mothers’ Baguettes, so I thought, Well, maybe it’s time,” she said. The Baguette was born in 1997. It started small—“we only had five stores!” said Venturini Fendi—but it was a runaway success, a contender for the title of “Very First It Bag.” The shape eventually came in dozens of fabrications: As with the Pokémon craze, there were collectors who had to catch ’em all.
There are different ways young people prefer to wear bags now, though, as Venturini Fendi has analyzed it: not tucked under the armpit as before, but front-loaded or cross-body like a fanny pack. It’s a trend that’s been transported across from streetwear, in fact, and the Baguette has been adapted to it. She pointed out how the original mini-bag now has a long and short strap, “to wear two ways.”
There was a bigger Baguette, too—the one in denim, worn center-front with a matching denim blazer and cargo pants, looked great. There were others, embossed with FF logos nestling on top of totes as well. There was plenty to take in beyond bags, too: parrot prints picked out from a carpet Lagerfeld had chosen; corset-cummerbund dresses; romantic sheer dresses embroidered with flowers. But the takeaway from this show was the rebirth of the house It bag. The swing toward ’90s and 2000s taste has a lot more swing in it yet.
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