The curious case of Fendi’s ₹9.59 lakh mirror-work bag
Fendi’s mirror-embellished Baguette sparks debate over credit for Indian craft
Indiadailyupdate.com – A Fendi handbag priced at $10,000, or about ₹9.59 lakh, has prompted a wider conversation online about recognition for Indian artisans and the global use of traditional craft techniques. The Italian luxury label’s brightly decorated Baguette design features embroidery, beads and mirrors that many social media users have linked to visual traditions associated with Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Online commentators have informally nicknamed it the “Navratri bag,” pointing to its colourful surface, reflective mirror detailing and festive appearance. The discussion has centred not only on the bag’s high price, but also on whether luxury houses should more clearly acknowledge the communities, makers and craft traditions that shape such designs.
A detailed luxury accessory
Fendi lists the item as the Baguette 26424 Multicolour Re-Edition. The bag is made in Italy and incorporates 39,500 beads along with 475 mirrors. Its production involved more than 138 hours of craftsmanship, reflecting the labour-intensive nature of its elaborate decoration.
Mirror work, beadwork and dense multicoloured embroidery can require painstaking manual execution. In India, such visual languages are widely familiar through regional textiles, festive clothing and handmade accessories. That resemblance is at the centre of the current reaction: many people feel the design carries a recognisably Indian craft sensibility, even when presented through an international luxury brand.
The issue is not simply whether one fashion house may use decorative techniques seen elsewhere. Fashion has always drawn ideas across borders, and crafts evolve through exchange, adaptation and reinvention. The sharper question raised by critics is whether the people and institutions contributing specialised knowledge receive visible acknowledgement when their work becomes part of a global product narrative.
Questions over attribution
Prominent Indian voices, including industrialist Harsh Goenka and philanthropist Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, joined the online discussion around cultural appropriation. Their participation helped turn a conversation about one accessory into a broader debate about authorship, visibility and value in luxury fashion.
An Instagram post from fashion watchdog Diet Paratha stated that Indian artisans at Mumbai’s Chanakya School of Craft created both the mirrored-bag version from 1995 and the present design. The post intensified calls for clearer public credit where Indian craftsmanship forms a meaningful element of a luxury product.
“If Indian craftsmanship is an integral part of the product’s story, shouldn’t Fendi be telling that story more visibly... Proper attribution needs to come directly from global luxury houses,”
That response captures a concern often voiced around high-fashion collaborations and artisan-led work. A product description may celebrate hours of labour, rare materials or intricate finishing, but readers increasingly want to know whose expertise made those details possible. Naming a craft school, artisan collective or regional tradition can offer consumers a fuller understanding of how an object was made.
For supporters of better attribution, the concern is also about the difference between inspiration and participation. A designer may take visual cues from a cultural tradition, while a product may alternatively be produced with the direct involvement of artisans who hold the relevant technical knowledge. In either case, the demand online is for greater transparency around the creative journey.
Why the reaction has resonated
Luxury fashion assigns exceptional value to handwork, heritage and scarcity. When an accessory carries a price tag of ₹9.59 lakh, the story behind its craftsmanship becomes especially significant. Consumers may reasonably ask how the value created through beadwork, mirror placement and embroidery is represented, and whether the makers connected to those techniques are part of the public story.
Social media reactions have ranged from frustration to scepticism about the fashion industry’s motivations.
“Brands these days are purposely launching rage bait designs.”
“Everyone has to steal something from India but hesitate when it comes to giving credit.”
Such comments reflect a sense that Indian craft aesthetics are often celebrated internationally while the people behind them remain less visible than the labels that market the finished goods. The debate also illustrates how quickly audiences now scrutinise fashion launches, examining not just silhouette, branding and price, but the cultural references embedded in a design.
Clear attribution need not diminish a luxury brand’s design identity. It can instead enrich the product’s meaning by giving customers a more complete account of the techniques, skills and collaborations involved. In an era when consumers are increasingly attentive to provenance, craft credit can become part of the value of an item rather than an afterthought.
Response awaited from craft school
Chanakya School of Craft had not responded by the time this article was prepared. Its perspective would be important in clarifying the nature of any artisan involvement in the earlier and current mirrored Baguette designs.
Until then, the Fendi bag remains a vivid example of a larger fashion-industry tension. The design has drawn attention for its intensive embellishment and celebratory colour, but it has also renewed calls for global brands to make the origins of craftsmanship more visible. For many observers, the central issue is straightforward: when Indian artisans and techniques help create a luxury object’s distinctive character, that contribution should be acknowledged clearly and prominently.
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