Return of the 'It Bag': Fendi Baguette Book & Special Re-Edition

Baguette Gialla, one of the six re-editions out this year

Fashion historians of tomorrow will peg the Fendi Baguette as being at the vanguard of the "It" bag phenomenon of the late 90s: now, the Italian house is celebrating its heritage with a commemorative tome and six very special re-issues.

If there ever was an "iconic" bag, the Baguette would most certainly deserve that accolade. Since Silvia Venturini Fendi designed the first Baguette back in 1997, the purse's immediately recognizable silhouette has been embellished, deconstructed and offered in every hue possible; more than a thousand permutations of the coveted bag exist.

Baguette Paglia

Fast-forward fifteen years later, and Mrs Fendi has hand-picked six of her favorite styles, to be reissued this June to fete the extraordinary legacy of the Baguette. A lot of thought went into the culling of the archives to produce just six of these designs: Mrs Fendi says that her choices were influenced by her personal life.

The Specchietti (seen below), for instance, was envisioned as a paean to her mother: "Often we would work at the house of my mother, Anna Fendi, especially in the winter garden. Here, between the kenzia palms and the orchids, there were baroque mirrors.”

Baguette Specchietti

Baguette Book packaging

Accompanying the six limited edition, individually numbered reissues is a massive, 250-page tome. The Fendi Baguette Book is a gorgeous, full color retrospective of the bag in all its alternately minimalist, baroque, functional and high-concept configurations. Of note are the special designer bags from the greatest artists of our age: as Damien Hirst, Richard Prince and Jeff Koons.

Supermodel Du Juan walking the Fendi "Great Wall" runway presentation in 2007, with that year's Oriental-inflected Baguette in hand

An authoratative collector's item, get the Fendi Baguette Book and the six re-editions at Fendi's latest South-East Asian flagship in Singapore - and while you're at it, have fun exploring the store, which is an exquisite work of art in itself!