There is something about a heavily embroidered bag that makes Indians look twice.
Add mirrors, bright colours and thousands of tiny embellishments, put the Fendi name on it and price it at around Rs. 9 lakh, and suddenly the internet has a lot to say.
That is exactly what happened with Fendi's latest Baguette.
Online, the bag has been widely called a “Navratri bag”. The comparison is easy to understand. The mirrors, beads and colourful embroidery look familiar to anyone who has grown up seeing Indian mirror-work, embroidered potlis and festive accessories.
Then came the inevitable question: Is this Indian craft being borrowed without enough credit?
Around the same time, a Ralph Lauren gown featuring elaborate hand-applied embellishment sparked a similar conversation, with people comparing its detailing to Indian Zardozi and Aari work.
Put the two stories together and you get a familiar fashion debate: where does inspiration end, and where does appropriation begin?
But the Fendi story is more complicated than the internet's “Navratri bag” label suggests.
First, The Rs. 9 Lakh Bag Isn't Actually Called A “Navratri Bag”
Fendi calls it the Baguette 26424 Multicolour Re Edition bag with embroidery and mirrors.
“Navratri bag” is a name that came from social media and public commentary. It isn't the name Fendi uses for the product.
And the bag is not a new Fendi silhouette created for this particular moment.
It is a re-edition of one of the house's Baguette designs, covered in an extraordinary amount of handwork.
Fendi says the bag contains 39,500 beads and 475 mirrors and takes more than 138 hours of craftsmanship to make. It is priced at US$10,000 in the US, which puts it at roughly Rs. 9 lakh-plus depending on the exchange rate and local pricing.
That is a lot of money for a handbag.
It is also a lot of work for one.
And that is where the story gets interesting.
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The Baguette Was Never Just One Bag
The Fendi Baguette was created by Silvia Venturini Fendi in 1997.
The idea was simple enough. Make a small shoulder bag that could sit comfortably under the arm, like a French baguette.
The name stuck.
The bag did too.
But what made the Baguette special was not just its shape. It was how easily the design could change.
A Baguette could be covered in sequins one season and embroidery the next. It could be made in leather, fabric or unusual materials. The basic shape remained recognisable while the surface kept changing.
That ability to reinvent itself became a huge part of the bag's appeal.
Then pop culture got involved.
When Carrie Bradshaw carried the Baguette on Sex and the City, the bag became more than an accessory. It became one of those fashion objects that people recognised even if they didn't know much about handbags.
Fendi now describes the Baguette as its first “It” bag.
Nearly three decades later, it is still being reinvented.
And that is important when looking at the current controversy.
Because the Rs. 9 lakh mirror-and-embroidery version isn't suddenly an Indian craft object wearing a Fendi logo. It sits within a much longer Fendi tradition of taking the Baguette and using it as a canvas for different forms of craftsmanship.
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Fendi Has Been Doing This With Craft For Years
The house has a whole project built around that idea.
Its Hand in Hand initiative brings together the Baguette and regional Italian craft traditions, allowing artisans from different parts of the country to reinterpret the bag using techniques associated with their communities.
In other words, the Baguette has always been partly about the craft on its surface.
That makes the Indian connection particularly interesting.
Because Fendi has, in fact, worked with Indian artisans.
The Part Of The Fendi Story That Got Lost Online
In April 2026, Fendi shared images and video showing artisans from Chanakya working with sequins, beads and mirrors.
Chanakya, the Indian embroidery house, has documented its collaboration with Fendi around the Baguette, including a presentation at Milan Design Week 2026.
So the story isn't as straightforward as:
Fendi saw Indian embroidery, copied it and put a Rs. 9 lakh price tag on it.
There is a documented relationship with Indian artisans.
But that doesn't mean there is nothing left to discuss.
Look at Fendi's product page for the bag and the emphasis is on the object itself: its materials, its construction, the number of beads and mirrors, the hours of craftsmanship and the fact that it is Made in Italy.
The Indian craft connection is not what most shoppers will immediately see when they look at the product description.
And perhaps that is the more interesting question.
When an international luxury house works with artisans from India, how prominently should those artisans and their craft be part of the story?
That is a question about visibility and attribution, rather than proof that the bag was copied.
Then Ralph Lauren Entered The Conversation
The Ralph Lauren story has its own set of questions.
The brand's Spring/Summer 2027 collection includes an embellished gown featuring what the house describes as hand-applied embellishments.
Online, people quickly saw something familiar.
The detailing was compared with Indian Zardozi and Aari embroidery, prompting criticism over whether Indian craft traditions were being used without sufficient acknowledgement.
But there is a reason to be careful with the terminology here.
A photograph cannot tell us with certainty which embroidery technique was used.
Fashion experts quoted by The Indian Express have pointed to similarities with the vocabulary of Indian Zardozi, while also noting that other hand-embroidery techniques could be involved.
So calling the gown definitively “Zardozi” would be going further than the available evidence allows.
“Compared with Zardozi” is the safer and more accurate description.
Why Indian Artisans Care About The Difference
Because Zardozi isn't just a pretty surface.
It has a history.
The embroidery tradition uses metallic threads and elaborate embellishment and has been practised by artisan communities in India for generations.
Lucknow Zardozi is also a registered Geographical Indication in India, with its registration dating back to 2013.
But even that comes with an important legal distinction.
A GI does not mean that every piece of metallic embroidery made anywhere in the world automatically infringes the GI.
Nor does seeing a particular visual resemblance prove that a designer copied a protected craft.
That is why the legal question and the cultural question should not be mixed up.
There is currently no court finding establishing that either the Fendi bag or Ralph Lauren gown infringes Indian craft rights.
The debate is largely about something more difficult to define legally: credit, visibility, ownership of cultural vocabulary and the economics of luxury fashion.
NEWS AT A GLANCE
Is Fendi calling it a “Navratri bag”?
No. Fendi's official name is Baguette 26424 Multicolour Re Edition bag with embroidery and mirrors. “Navratri bag” is a social-media nickname.
How much does the Fendi bag cost?
Fendi lists it at US$10,000 in the US. Indian reports have described that as roughly Rs. 9 lakh-plus, depending on exchange rates and pricing.
What is actually on the Fendi bag?
Fendi says the design contains 39,500 beads and 475 mirrors and takes more than 138 hours of craftsmanship.
Did Fendi work with Indian artisans?
Yes. Chanakya has documented a 2026 collaboration with Fendi involving hand embroidery, including work with sequins, mirrors and beads.
Is the Ralph Lauren gown definitely Zardozi?
That has not been established from photographs. Its embellishment has been compared with Zardozi and Aari traditions, but identifying the exact technique requires examining the garment itself.
The Problem With Calling Everything “Cultural Appropriation”
The phrase has become almost automatic whenever a Western luxury brand uses something that looks recognisably Indian.
But fashion history is rarely that clean.
Designers borrow from one another. Crafts travel. Techniques evolve. Artisans collaborate with international brands. Luxury houses reinterpret regional traditions all the time.
The real question is what happens along the way.
Who made it?
Who taught the technique?
Who gets named?
Who gets paid?
And when the final object is sold for thousands of dollars, whose story is being told alongside the luxury brand's?
In the case of Fendi, there is evidence of an actual relationship with Indian artisans. That matters.
It also makes the conversation about attribution more nuanced, not less important.
Because a collaboration can exist and still leave people asking whether the craftsperson's contribution is visible enough.
The Strange Journey Of The Baguette
Perhaps the most fascinating part of this entire debate is that the Baguette has always been a product of transformation.
Silvia Venturini Fendi designed it in 1997.
Carrie Bradshaw helped turn it into a pop-culture phenomenon.
Fendi then spent decades changing what could be done with it, from fabrics and sequins to embroidery and collaborations with artisans.
Now one of those versions happens to look deeply familiar to an Indian audience.
That doesn't automatically make it an Indian bag.
But it does make people ask why certain craft traditions become instantly recognisable when they appear on a luxury object, yet the communities that have practised those techniques for generations can remain largely invisible.
And that is probably the conversation worth having.
Not simply “Did Fendi copy India?”
Not simply “Is Ralph Lauren using Zardozi?”
But something much more uncomfortable:
When traditional craft enters luxury fashion, does the craft get to keep its identity, or does the luxury label become the entire story?
Because fashion can discover a visual language in a season.
For the people who make that craft, it may have taken generations to build.
