Avant Garde, I know you like the B Fendi - here's an FT article that complements your NYT article. (I also posted this on the B Fendi thread) Happy reading
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FT WEEKEND - STYLE
A Valentine's gift in the bag - Forget the lingerie, what every woman wants is a classic accessory and this year's essential item is the Fendi B bag, says Vanessa Friedman.
By VANESSA FRIEDMAN
11 February 2006
Financial Times
The other day a pair of knickers landed on my desk. This was notable less for its mere occurrence (all sorts of weird stuff lands on my desk, from air mattresses to designer basketballs) than for the knickers themselves, which were silk, with a black lace back, red ties at the side, hearts and "be mine" on the front. Yup, they were a Valentine's stunt.
The phenomenon of the Valentine undies - the presumption that everyone wants a pair of Valentine undies - has always puzzled me. Now, in general I shy away from the first person on these pages - but I feel strongly enough about this, and have spoken to enough other people who feel strongly about it, to feel justified in bringing myself into the conversation. After all, let's face it: lingerie is about as personal a purchase as you can make and people are generally pretty idiosyncratic in their tastes. This is a reality that seems to have escaped the attention of most men, who continue to go blindly into Agent Provocateur come February 13 and ask the sales woman what they should buy, often ending up with completely inappropriate gifts that say a lot more about their fantasies than those of their beloveds.
After all, if Valentine's Day is about fantasies, and indeed it is, what do most women fantasise about when it comes to clothes and accessories? Judging from sales and a random poll of females, not knickers - and especially not the kind of knickers you can't actually wear under any clothes, like the side-tie kind. They fantasise about bags (OK, they also fantasise about lots of other things, like being carried off by George Clooney, but this discussion is limited to product).
Handbags are the opium of the 21st century consumer - the things that quicken the blood, cause shortness of breath and desire; the things that have nothing to do with need, and everything to do with want. So if you want to buy your sweetheart something that will cause her to fling her arms around you in rapturous abandon, get thee to an accessories concession.
And try not to have an anxiety attack when you arrive. The amount of bags on offer these days is overwhelming as every luxury brand around chases the balance sheet booster that is the elusive It bag. Chanel has its just-launched "Luxury" bowling bag-and-chains line; Chloe has the Edith and Versace offers the Squash. Get it right and the margins can send profits into the stratosphere as Balenciaga did with its motorcycle bag (the indie It bag), Alexander McQueen with his Novak (the cool blonde It bag), Chloe with its Paddington (the It girl It bag), and Louis Vuitton with - well, almost every bag (the socialite It bag). The problem is, it's hard to know how to get it right - becoming an It bag usually creeps up on a brand. Except, that is, this season. For the first time in a long time, there seems to be a general consensus about what this season's It bag will be.
"The Fendi B bag," says Clare Sauro, head of the accessories collection at the Fashion Institute of Technology museum. "There's a feeling about it, an anticipation. You can't force women to love a bag but everything is in line to make that happen this time."
Virginia Smith, fashion market/accessories editor of US Vogue, agrees. "Definitely, the B bag. When it went down the runway we just fell for it. It's one of the stronger reactions we've had to a bag. The last time was probably the Louis Vuitton Takashi Murakami bags." These, you might remember, were the LV monogram bags remade by the artist in the bright colours of Japanese anime, and they were - and still are - a phenomenon.
A large, curvy, structured bag bedecked by two equally curvy oversize buckles, the B bag first made an appearance on the Fendi runway last September, and the drum roll began almost immediately. "It's definitely had more attention in the press than usual," says Julie Gilhart, fashion director of Barneys. The bag got the coveted last page in the January issue of American Vogue and had an entire story devoted to it in Harper's Bazaar. Every purse blog, from Iamfashion.purseblog.com to baglady.com has anointed it the new It bag. "I noticed, from the beginning, how well accepted it was," says Silvia Venturini Fendi, the designer who invented the style. But just because magazines and blogsters write it, doesn't mean people will buy - except the department stores did. A lot.
"We did go heavily into the B Fendi," says Gilhart. "I would think most stores did." Among them was Bergdorf Goodman, which increased its bag order by 700 per cent. During a brief appearance on the eluxury website, B Fendis sold out. There is a waiting list of 100 at Neiman Marcus and at Fendi's Sloane Street store in London 70 per cent of the order is already pre-sold. And so Fendi is preparing itself for the B bag to be big. Very, very, big. "I think we could sell 50,000," says Michael Burke, chief executive of the brand. "For a creative, high-end bag, that's stellar."
The question, of course, is why, and though part of the answer is alchemy - "you either respond emotionally to a bag or you don't," says Smith - there are other, more practical, reasons. "When I arrived at Fendi in 2003, I went back and tried to reconstitute what happened with the Baguette" - that small, squashy, under-arm purse that eventually appeared in more than 500 varieties, and effectively created the whole idea of an It bag - "and it wasn't clear how it became such a bestseller," says Burke. "All that was clear was that it was not planned. But it was the first bag you wanted to collect. Before that, everyone wanted the same bag - the one Princess Diana had. With the baguette, you wanted one that was special for you."
The lesson was learnt: multiple incarnations of one style has been the house's approach since, says Burke. The B bag will be available in approximately 50 variations and four styles (big double buckle; smaller double buckle; single buckle day; single buckle evening), "They're very smart," says Sauro, "because they offer the bag in so many different fabrics. It has an appeal across the board."
Then there's the B bag's "whimsical appeal - it pops," says Smith, referring to the almost cartoon-like buckles and bright colours. Indeed, the bag has a subtle Pop art feel and thus references a current strand of the zeitgeist, which encompasses the upcoming Edie Sedgwick/Andy Warhol film that has received a drum roll of pre-publicity, as well as the Jean-Charles de Castelbajac show about to open at London's Victoria and Albert museum.
And finally, there's the simple luck of chronology. Fendi has already earned heightened attention over its bags after its last effort, the Spy. This squashy, pillow-like release from early last year is still sold out in many stores. As Gilhart says: "The business with Fendi has been very strong because of the Spy and I would think most stores would want to maximise that."
As a result, while Venturini Fendi admits the success of the Baguette, and that of the Spy took the brand itself a bit by surprise, it is prepared for the B Fendi. "I fully expect it to become a phenomenon," says Burke. We are making them as fast as we can."
"People have been calling and calling," says Fendi, "so I think it will be a hit."
Certainly at the just-opened New York fashion week, the industry scrum that also functions as a shop window on all new accessories, the B bag was front and centre at the feet of many editors. "I'd like one for the museum," says Sauro. But which one? There's white, black, red and periwinkle blue patent, nude leather covered in black or white lace with flowers beaded on the buckles; black alligator; all-over floral embroidered; and, for Valentine's Day - though note, the bag isn't actually going on sale until the end of the month, so you'd have to put your name on a waiting list - there's the perfect version: cream wicker, trimmed in green python, with beading on the straps that depicts the silhouettes of a man and woman facing each other, as though waiting for a kiss.
Of all the options available, this is one that that manages to be weirdly touching - that odd moment when an item of fashion transcends itself and somehow plucks your heartstrings. "They look as if they are going to kiss each other . . . but it could be a poison kiss," Venturini Fendi said of the picture. "It is a romantic collection, so I thought it was appropriate." More appropriate, in any case, then a pair of peekaboo undies that will never see the light of day.
No problem 
"They always fit!"
