NEW YORK — Fendi’s Baguette, fashion’s original it-bag, is turning 25 years old this year. The LVMH-owned brand’s commercially tactical womenswear designer Kim Jones used that milestone to stage an homage to the top-selling accessory at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday, at the top of New York Fashion Week.
Jones took his bow with Silvia Venturini Fendi — who designed the bag with the late Karl Lagerfeld back in 1997 — as well as her daughter, Delfina Delettrez Fendi, and designer and LVMH stablemate Marc Jacobs, who collaborated on the collection.
Sarah Jessica Parker — another contributor to the concept, who helped launch the Baguette to fame when it was featured on “Sex and the City” — sat front-and-centre in an endless row of celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Maude Apatow and what felt like almost every major 1990s supermodel, from Amber Valletta and Shalom Harlow to Kate Moss.
British Vogue September cover star Linda Evangelista closed the show draped in a cloak rendered in Tiffany blue, adding yet another tie-up with an LVMH-owned brand. (Several of group’s executives, including Tiffany CEO Anthony Ledru and LVMH Fashion Group CEO Sidney Toledano attended the show.)
A virtual piling on of stuff (some looks featured six or seven Baguettes), the outing, from the silhouettes to street-inspired accessories, was most obviously touched by Jacobs. (A fluffy white version of the bag was printed in black with “The Baguette” in his signature typeface.)
Jones will be showing his next womenswear collection in Milan in a couple of weeks, but Fendi CEO Serge Brunschwig, who joined the business in 2018, said that given the bag’s association with Parker and “Sex and the City,“ celebrating in New York was an obvious choice.
It also provided an opportunity for LVMH to showcase its American brands. While Brunschwig said he wasn’t motivated by sales momentum in the US market, he acknowledged dryly that “it’s not a problem to be here.”
Learn more:
Why European Brands Are Still Betting on America
A packed New York Fashion Week schedule points to resilience in the US market. But for how long? Plus, what else to watch out for in the coming week.
Disclosure: LVMH is part of a group of investors who, together, hold a minority interest in The Business of Fashion. All investors have signed shareholder’s documentation guaranteeing BoF’s complete editorial independence.
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