It’s Not A Bag, It’s A Baguette: The Immortal FENDI Icon That Refuses To Fade Into Fashion History

A sun-drenched Manhattan afternoon. The streets hum with the restless energy of New York. Carrie Bradshaw walks alone, her heels striking the pavement with familiar confidence, when a handsome stranger steps into her path.

“Give me your bag.”

Carrie pauses.

With all the conviction of a woman defending something far greater than an accessory, she corrects him instantly.

“Sir, it’s not a bag. It’s a Baguette.”

In that fleeting television moment from Sex and the City, fashion history was made.

What could have been a simple prop became a cultural phenomenon. The richly sequinned purple FENDI Baguette transcended its role as an accessory and entered the collective imagination as an object of desire, identity and aspiration. 

More than two decades later, that legendary line remains one of fashion’s most quoted declarations, and now it returns to inspire FENDI’s captivating new digital campaign: It’s Not A Bag, It’s A Baguette®.

Photographed by Bibi Borthwick and set to Addison Rae’s intoxicating track Fame is a Gun, the campaign gathers an extraordinary cast of modern cultural voices. Sarah Jessica Parker returns as the woman forever intertwined with the Baguette’s mythology, joined by Bang Chan, Emma D’Arcy, Song Yuqi, Sophie Thatcher, Jessica Alba, Ren Meguro, Iris Law, Tecla Insolia and MINA.

Yet this is not a campaign about celebrity.

It is a campaign about self-expression.

Each star appears with a Baguette chosen to reflect their personality, mood and individuality. Through Borthwick’s intimate lens, they move naturally, unguarded and spontaneous. The result feels less like advertising and more like a series of personal confessions.

“It’s mine.”

“It’s my attitude.”

“It’s controlled chaos.”

“It’s family.”

“It’s history.”

And, naturally, “It’s not a bag, it’s a Baguette.”

The message is simple but powerful. The Baguette has never merely carried belongings. It carries identity.

That has always been its magic.

When Silvia Venturini Fendi first conceived the Baguette in 1997, fashion was deep in a period of minimalist restraint. Small enough to sit neatly beneath the arm, the design was practical in scale yet revolutionary in spirit. 

Instead of conforming to the muted aesthetics of the era, the Baguette embraced embellishment, colour, embroidery, sequins, exotic materials and extraordinary craftsmanship.

It was fashion’s ultimate act of rebellion.

Women did not buy one Baguette because they needed a handbag. They bought several because each version expressed a different facet of themselves. 

Long before social media transformed personal style into a global language, the Baguette had already understood that fashion was becoming increasingly personal.

The world responded with obsession.

Since its debut, thousands of interpretations have emerged, transforming the Baguette into one of the most collected and celebrated accessories in luxury fashion. 

Few handbags can claim genuine icon status. FENDI’s masterpiece achieved it effortlessly.

Its enduring appeal is inseparable from the story of FENDI itself.

Founded in Rome in 1925 by Adele and Edoardo Fendi as a family-run fur and leather goods house, FENDI spent the next century refining a uniquely Roman vision of luxury—one rooted in exceptional craftsmanship, technical innovation and unapologetic glamour.

The arrival of Karl Lagerfeld in 1965 marked a transformative chapter. His legendary collaboration with the Fendi family redefined modern luxury while introducing the iconic FF logo that remains synonymous with the house today. Together, they elevated fur, leather and accessories into objects of artistic expression.

Then came Silvia Venturini Fendi, whose instinct for creating accessories that captured the cultural mood proved extraordinary. 

The Baguette was followed by a succession of influential designs, yet none would eclipse the phenomenon she unleashed in 1997.

Today, as FENDI celebrates its centenary, the house enters another compelling era under the creative direction of Maria Grazia Chiuri. 

For her first FENDI collection, Fall/Winter 2026–27, the Baguette returns to its original silhouette and celebrated Style Code 26424, reaffirming the timeless purity of the design that changed handbag history.

Launching worldwide on 16 July 2026, it arrives not as a nostalgic revival but as a declaration of enduring relevance.

Because true icons never need reinvention.

They simply wait for the world to remember why it fell in love with them in the first place.

That is precisely what makes the new campaign so irresistible. It understands that the Baguette’s power has never resided solely in leather, sequins or craftsmanship—remarkable though they are. Its true luxury lies in what it represents.

Confidence.

Individuality.

Self-possession.

A century after FENDI first opened its doors in Rome, the house continues to shape fashion not by following trends but by creating them. 

The Baguette remains its most eloquent expression: a symbol of Roman elegance, Italian savoir-faire and fearless personal style.

And perhaps that is why, all these years later, Carrie Bradshaw’s correction still resonates.

Because some objects become larger than fashion.

Some become legends.

And the Baguette, now and forever, is one of them.

*Photos courtesy of FENDI.