Fendi collaborates with Francis Kurkdjian for first perfumed 'Baguette' bag

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Isabelle Crossley

Published
Dec 19, 2019

A scented bag? Fendi has made this possible with its latest launch, and created a scented version of its iconic 'Baguette' bag, which was first created in 1997 and has since been continuously updated. The perfumed version has been made possible through a collaboration with Francis Kurkdjian, a brand also owned by the LVMH Group since 2017.

In 2014, Francis Kurkdjian relaunched the tradition of perfuming leather and filed a patent for the technique. It is this method that Kurkdjian used to perfume the Baguette bag and create the 'Fendi Frenesia' scent, an eau de parfum with leathery and musky notes wrapped in Iris, which is intended to reflect the scent of the soft and textured Selleria leather that Fendi uses to create its famous bags.

After various processes, Kurkdjian conserved the scent in the internal structure of the leather, which allows it to release the scent for three years. The Frenesia perfume also comes in a 5ml bottle and is designed to be sprayed onto the wearer’s own skin or onto a card, which can be slid into the bag, in order to make the fragrance last longer. The perfume is sold in a mini-Baguette bag, which retails for €450 on Fendi’s e-commerce site. 

For the launch of the scented bag, Fendi asked Canadian photographer, Christelle Boulé, to translate the perfumed soul of the bag into a series of images. Boulé infused silver photo paper with a few drops of the perfume which -- once dried, exposed to light, and developed -- revealed an imprint of 'Frenesia' resembling a sort of white imprint. This was printed on 20 of the scented Baguette bags (10 for men and 10 for women), sold as limited-edition pieces at the Fendi store in Miami, U.S., during Art Basel Miami.

“For the love of the craft and of my profession, I have modernised a technique invented by master glove makers of the 12th century, successfully bringing it back to life, which made it possible to join forces centring around shared values and a common aesthetic,” said Kurkdjian in a statement, delighted with his collaboration with Fendi.