Fendi Evening Bags and Minaudières

Vintage Fendi handbags, shoulder bags and totes are sought after for their exceptional quality and unique details. The celebrated label is known for drawing inspiration from tradition and its Italian roots as well as experimentation and use of high-quality leathers and furs.

Like other major European luxury brands, Fendi started small. The Italian fashion house began as a fur and leather shop in Rome — Adele and Edoardo Fendi founded the label in 1925. It quickly became the favorite shop of women all over Italy’s capital city for its goods, and it has since grown into a brand that is admired internationally for its bags, clothing and accessories.

Adele and Edoardo’s five daughters assumed management of the company during the 1950s and Fendi’s audience broadened. Its profitability has soared over the years, owing to the brand’s fresh perspective on fashion world happenings and innovative sensibility. With respect to its well-made everyday crossbody bags, clutches and other bags, the maison also has a distinctive relationship with old-world Italian craftsmanship. The Selleria bags were the work of master saddlers in Rome, and Fendi partnered with lace artisans in southern Italy as well as craftsmen in the east trained in the intrecciato (intertwined) technique (an idea that Adele introduced during the 1940s), which, in Fendi’s case, sees an interwoven leather fabric integrated in the creation of its handbags, countering leather’s traditional rigidity with a bag that is soft, versatile and fitted with an alluring slouchy curve.

Two of Fendi’s most iconic bags are the Peekaboo and the Baguette. First released in 1997, Fendi’s Baguette rose to fame along with Carrie Bradshaw, the Sex and the City character portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker. Much has changed since Silvia Venturini Fendi unveiled the bag back then.

The original “it” bag turned 25 in 2022, and the Baguette’s silver anniversary bash began with a runway presentation at the Hammerstein Ballroom, which is located in New York City, the setting of the Baguette’s ascent into the ranks of fashion’s most wanted. It happened this way: In the third season of Sex in the City, a thief accosted Parker’s character and demanded her Manolos, her jewelry and her purple-sequined “bag.” “It’s a Baguette,” she corrected. And a star was born.

As part of a celebration of the Baguette, Fendi and Versace teamed up on the delightfully outrageous Fendace Baguette, a crystal-encrusted bag that features a gold Versace logo. It’s a sparkling beauty that tells the tale of one of the fashion industry’s biggest changes: the embrace of collaborations. The movement began in 2004, with the high-fashion-comes-to-mass-market partnership between H&M and Karl Lagerfeld.

Lagerfeld’s name is well known to enthusiasts of vintage Fendi bags. The name Fendi had been around for decades when the young German designer took the creative helm at the company in 1965. But it was not until then, however, that the Italian brand became a world-renowned fashion house. Lagerfeld produced four to five collections yearly for Fendi — and is celebrated for the shoes, purses and other pieces he created for the brand.

Find vintage Fendi handbags and purses, travel bags, top handle bags and other bags in a range of styles on 1stDibs.