Fendi revives the Baguette, tapping Carrie Bradshaw-era nostalgia

The best handbag gifts do two jobs at once: they feel unmistakably iconic to the giver and immediately desirable to the recipient. Fendi has that formula working again with the Baguette, the bag that helped define Carrie Bradshaw’s wardrobe and still has the kind of pop-culture recognition most luxury houses spend decades chasing. The new campaign leans into that memory on purpose, with Sarah Jessica Parker back in the frame and the message clear: this is not a reinvention of a forgotten accessory, but a return to a proven fantasy.

Fendi created the Baguette in 1997 and calls it the house’s first It bag, named for the French bread loaf it is meant to sit under the arm like. The current Baguette 26424 is built on that same silhouette, with a crackled black leather version priced at $3,500, while the broader leather selection includes Mini styles at $2,500 and a beads version at $22,100. That spread is exactly why the Baguette works as a gift: it can be a serious but reachable luxury purchase, or a collector’s flex if you want the present to feel rarer and more personal.

The comeback is not happening in a vacuum. Fendi says the Baguette returns to its roots in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s debut Fendi collection arriving in July 2026, and a new digital campaign premiered on June 16, 2026 with Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Alba, Emma D’Arcy, Sophie Thatcher, Iris Law, Tecla Insolia, Bang Chan, Song Yuqi, Ren Meguro and Mina. That cast gives the bag a useful cross-generational charge: Parker supplies the original Carrie Bradshaw aura, while the younger names make the Baguette feel freshly claimed rather than nostalgically pinned to the past.

The numbers help too. WWD says the Baguette has sold more than a million bags in its 27-year history, which explains why Fendi keeps returning to it for special drops and anniversary plays, including a 25th-anniversary collaboration with Tiffany & Co. in sterling silver made with artisans in Rhode Island. That kind of record gives the gift a safety net: the Baguette already has a validated fantasy attached to it, so giving one does not feel like taking a gamble on a trend. It feels like buying into an icon that already knows how to make itself beloved.