We’ll Never See a Fendi Oyster Bag Again

The ‘00s Fendi Oyster bag, now less on the resale market, was as individualistic as they came.

Dec 02, 2024

A Deep Dive on the Fendi Oyster Bag about why we’ll never see it again, juice from a former Vogue editor, and curated links to buy it.

A wooden edition of the Fendi Oyster bag from *Vogue* September. 2002

Once upon a time, we didn’t need to decorate bags with keychains or patches to show our personalities or set ourselves apart from the doppelgänger bag pack. Over two decades ago, the landscape of It bags as expressions of oneself was far different. Instead, there was embedded variety in the design. One of the best examples is the fall 2002 Fendi Oyster bag, sometimes called the “Ostrik.” Like the Yves Saint Laurent Mombasa, the Fendi Oyster ran the mixed media gamut with designs in suede, canvas, reptile, and leather that were then whipstitched, etched, sprouting with fur, or came in the House’s Zucca monogram. The designs were as maximalist as they come. One Oyster bag, made from a canvas Zucca base that bursts with plumes of fur and silk flowers, is currently in The Met. In the early 2000s, there was an Oyster bag for everyone. No tchotchkefying necessary.

The bag is sensual, not only because of its aphrodisiac terminology but because the shape is deliciously feminine. One side follows a slight curve, like the soft slope of the ass. For a great compare and contrast moment, the other side of the bag flatly descends. The bag isn’t necessarily roomy and has a narrow width, though it may expand depending on the fabric. Whether or not you can stuff it, it maintains a structured look, as the sides are often reinforced with leather laces or grommets.

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The Fendi Oyster was such a hit that the curvy carryall appeared in Vogue four times in four different renditions in 2002 alone. Michelle Kessler-Sanders, then Vogue’s Accessories Director, was responsible for the placement. “There was even a brass version,” Kessler-Sanders told me over the phone. “Those guys had no

off button at Fendi.”

Kessler-Sanders first put the bag in the “Last Look” section of the Vogue January 2002 issue in a charming round-up of slouchy takes on bags inspired by college girls. This Oyster was suede, embroidered, and had budding tassels tracing its exterior. The strap was a buckle. The haute hippie-dippy bag retailed for $3,667 or, perhaps, the equivalent of a decent New York City one-bedroom rental. The following month, in a “Vogue File” piece, a $595 scarified tooled-leather Oyster bag nicely fit into a Santa Fe-themed spread with other etched accessories. Finally, there was a patchworked wooden edition for $1,344 in “Last Look” from September 2002 about, well, wooden accessories. Note: The same wooden bag also had a major campaign moment for fall 2002: model Rie Rasmussen went full Russian oligarch’s wife, swaddled in the most cinched fur jacket known to man, held the timber Oyster firmly at her side. “Look at it closely,” says Kessler-Sanders. “The audacity to stitch wood onto an animal print base. Insanely fabulous!”

In the March 2002 issue, then-Vogue Style Director Elissa Santisi included the brass iteration with artfully scrawled indentations in a maximalist Raymond Meier editorial. The caption deemed the piece “spring’s most-wanted bag.” (The bag’s design was inspired by a pair of beaten copper Carlo Bugatti console tables in Ms. Fendi’s home.) A testament to the greatness of the Oyster? Santisi wears her own pared-back version to this day. “I still have a Fendi Oyster bag and I still wear it every few years. I throw it in a suitcase. It’s good for a vacation because it weighs nothing. It’s black canvas with a black leather strap in the smallest size,” Santisi wrote to me via email. “Really chic.”

Kessler-Sanders explains that the boom of the Oyster followed the Fendi Baguette craze. “They were like jewels. Each one of them. They were endless,” she says about the Baguette. “What made it to the stores was unbelievable. There was just so much variety, and there was so much individuality.” Fendi translated that high-octane individuality into the Oyster a season later. This time, the handiwork—and the zeitgeist—was different; now more Janis than Wallis. “It was the period of the rich hippie. It was like Talitha-Getty-rich-hippie-meets-Roman-warrior-goddess with stitching, the beautiful handiwork, and the craft. It was so strong. It was just very, very beautiful,” says Kessler-Sanders. “But they [Fendi] had the ability to do it.” Cue the Oyster’s perpetual variations that funneled right into the former accessories director’s market edits

.The bag, which volleyed between boho, sleek, and luxe, was also highlighted in the 2002 New York Times article “Must You Have the Bags They Say You Must Have” by Cathy Horyn, alongside the red hot Mombasa, the Balenciaga City, and Prada’s bowling bag. The mollusk moniker got prime real estate in Horyn’s It bag article in a banner at the top with a boatload of 100 dollar bills bursting from it. Only a few bags away from the epic Balenciaga City!

Spot the Fendi bag on the far right. (*The New York Times,* June 11, 2002.)

Like any good It bag–cue the Kate-Moss-discovering-the-Balenciaga-City-bag tale–there’s delicious lore. In the Horyn piece, there is a petty bag fact that includes Fendi’s artistic director, Silvia Venturini Fendi, Miuccia Prada’s husband, Patrizio Bertelli, who had a stake in Fendi at the time, and a bathroom. “She [Ms. Venturini] and her staff worked on the design during a period that coincided with Mr. Bertelli’s ownership of Fendi (with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton). Concerned that the bag’s design might find its way to Prada, Ms. Venturini kept it from him until the day of the show. ‘We hid it in a box in the toilet,’ she said.”

And why not hide this glorious piece in the toilet? The slender shape made the bag an easel for chameleonic elegance and cool that was translated into a zillion versions. In fact, Horyn reported in her Times article that Fendi sold 21,000 Oyster bags, a significant feat in 2002. The craftsmanship was phenomenal, with etchings and lacings all in a cornucopia of fabrics and materials. But we’ll never see that range of high-quality, deliciously tricked-out bags a la the Fendi Oyster again. “It was sort of like the It style rather than just the It bag,” says Kessler-Sanders. “Now everything does look the same.”

And why do today’s bags look the same? Why do their variations only depend on color and sizing? Across brands and Houses, today’s bags are a far cry from the sheer individuality seen at Fendi. Bags like the Fendi Oyster, with all their flourishes, are expensive to produce. There’s a reason why, out of all the bags mentioned in Horyn’s 2002 Times piece, the Balenciaga City bag is still being made. The design follows a copy-and-paste method. No hand-embroidered this or applique that!

As for the Fendi Oyster, it remains in a league of its own. “The bags weren’t quiet,” says Kessler-Sanders. “They were a commitment.”

Whether or not Fendi will ever bring back the Oyster bag on the scale it did in 2002, vintage ones are rolling around the internet that don’t necessarily boast a quadruple-digit price tag. In the resale verse, the Oyster is, yes, your Oyster.