Fendi authentication: what to look for on vintage bags

A little history:

The dynamic Fendi family of Rome, Italy, has built a successful fashion for three generations. The house was founded by Adele Casagrande and Eduardo Fendi; they first produced high-quality fur and leather goods in 1925 in Rome.

The next generation of 5 sisters began to join their parents in the business in 1946. Paola, Anna, Franca, Carla and Alda each brough different talents and interests to invigorate Fendi products.

The following year Fendi began working with young designer Karl Lagerfeld, who gradually changed the modern concept of fur in fashion.

Moreover, was also responsible for their logo design of interlocking ‘F’.

Fendi has been on the forefront of fashion since the introduction of their Fendi Baguette, which was responsible along with Chanel, Gucci and Prada for igniting the handbag wars of the mid-to-late 1990s.

Selleria Art Work

Selleria bags are in our opinion Fendi’s top products. They are entirely handcrafted and handstiched (you can see how the large and regular stiches are always very noticeable on Selleria bags.

This highlights quality. Selleria internal tags are silver plated (Sterling Silver). Leather is also incredibly soft and of superior quality. 

Look for a long digit serial number which in most cases in embossed on a leather tag inside on the of internal pockets.

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Monograms:

Fendi’s 2 most popular patters have always been “Zucca” and “Zucchino” monograms. Here are 2 examples of each.

Below you can see a late 1990s top handle or shoulder bag with brown Zucca tones.

This is another beautiful blue tones zucca monogram Top handle shopper from the early 1980s. You can have a look at Fendi’s SAS leather logo attached in the internal canvas.

 Top handle purse with both silver metal plate and serial number inside.

This recent boston bronze tones zucchino monograms bag has internal logos, serials and Fendi code hologram inside.

SERIAL NUMBERS, HOLOGRAMS, HARDWARE, LEATHER LOGOS.

Let’s start saying that serial references appear in ALL Fendi bags from the beginning of the ’90s to today. Fendi started using hologram labels in a consistent way from 2004/2005.

But let’s focus on Vintage Fendi Bags. Bags released from beginning of 1990s to very early 2000s should have:

– 6 to 8 digits;

– 12 digits;

– 16 digits (some serials could range from 15 to 17 digits if we consider symbols like the “-“symbol)

1970s – Wood & Cuir gorgeous top handle purse. Logo is imprinted with fire onto the wood. I have NEVER seen an early 1970s Fendi imitation in over 20 years of fashion knowledge, but you never know.

This splendid ’70s top handle bag with its matching little purse and mirror has a very old Fendi logo inside.

2 more examples of 1970s and 1970s Bags with their internal logos and hardware.

End of 1980s, very early 1990s – here’s a gorgeous Cartella, in classic Fendi striped pattern, with Fendi vertical logo’s along the sides of the dark stripes. Focus on the FENDI SAS gold metal logo, and also on the 8 digit early serial references.

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Here’s an example of a beautiful tote gray leather Fendi from the late first decade of  2000s. See how many aspects there are to check genuineness, from the hardware, to the serial print on a leather small tag which will be probably hidden in one of the internal pockets, as this one was.

The “Bag De Jour” (2008),  has the middle part of its serial number which corrisponds to the model number (1st part), of the shop card. Sorry that code is not perfectly visible, but to help you out, the part “8BN162” which is the central part of the leather embossed serial on the top right (below picture) is the same as the initial part of the “ART.” number on the shop card bottom right.

“To You” Bag, 2008. Again, central part of serial number (8BL100) corresponds to the 1st part of the number on the shop card.

RFID

In 2010/2011, they started using another more advanced system called RFID, with more advanced authenticity purposes. Here’s a very recent Fendi 3Jour, with its RFID internal tag, and its serial number on its internal leather tag. A quick 360 video to help you out in focusing on the details of this bag:

Hardware

Hardware is also extremely important. Fendi hardware on vintage bags is highly recognizable. Below are some examples of bags and what to look for. Look for YKK metal zippers (could have FENDI logo), and beware plastic ones.

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