Fendi’s Spy Bag Won’t Leave My Mind, And Soon It’ll Be On Yours Too (Again)

I’ve recently made a shocking discovery: according to the screen time recording app Opal, I will have spent 37 years of my life on my phone if I continue to use it like I do. Thirty-seven. That’s longer than Princess Diana was alive. Longer than all of Friends aired. Longer, even, than the Fendi Spy Bag was out of fashion. But, spoiler: the latter no longer applies.

But what am I doing on my phone? The honest answer: absolutely everything. It is, quite literally, my butler, my trainer, my travel agent, my personal chef, my therapist. I play pilates videos, I book holiday flights, I watch Tik Toks of people silently preparing salmon bowls. But more than anything, and here is where it becomes both a hobby and a hazard, I scroll through vintage resale sites like I’m trying to sniff out truffles. And recently, one gem keeps surfacing in the algorithm, and that is the Fendi Spy bag.

Not the Baguette (no, that’s the golden child, the SATC-sanctioned darling of 1990s arm candy), this is her more complicated younger sister. First launched in 2005 under Silvia Venturini Fendi (the same woman who gave us the Peekaboo, because of course she did), the Spy was born of a moment, a pillow-shaped capsule with a secret compartment, hidden under a flap, fastened with a button.

Like any It-bag worth its rhinestones, the Spy had her moment with the early-aughts starlets who defined the paparazzi-lensed dress code of the day: Lindsay Lohan at the Ivy, Hilary Duff en route to pilates, Victoria Beckhamin skinny jeans and enormous sunglasses. It was the bag you carried if you might have something to hide. A sidekick to your sidekick, if you will. But, as fashion dictates, the pendulum swung, and the Spy disappeared into the great archival abyss, somewhere between the Chloé Paddington and the Balenciaga City bag, consigned to memory and Depop. Until now.

Because this season the designer bag is back. Quietly, but with a bit of fanfare, it appeared on Fendi’s Autumn/Winter ‘25 runway, reimagined in buttered leathers, shiny satin and delicious hues. It felt less like a revival and more like a gentle reintroduction; a subtle signal that Fendi’s heritage extends far beyond the Baguette and the Peekaboo. A reminder that the archive holds multitudes, and that the next It-bag might be one we forgot we even loved.

And, no surprises here, celebs are flocking to it like it never left. From PinkPantheress at Glastonbury, to Bel Powley at Wimbledon, Joy Crookes, Kelly Rowland and Rita Ora - the bag’s already hanging off arms like it didn't go on sabbatical. Of course, a supermodel-fronted campaign featuring Gabriette and Amelia Gray aids the cause, too.

What’s more, the Spy bag has already passed with flying colours, part nostalgia, part contemporary stroke of design genius. It blends the softness of a tote bag (and the ascribed roominess) with the nifty appeal of a seriously good shoulder bag. Aka it fits more than you’d think, and still looks chic enough to accompany you on a night out. It is, in short, what fashion editors like myself look for in a bag that needs to accompany them on several months of travel throughout the year. And rest assured, the smallest size does fit your phone, of course, next to all the other bits that you don’t want anyone else to see.

Which brings me, once again, back to my shameful screen time results and things I don't want people to see. Back to the tabs of vintage shops I refuse to close. Back to that particular shade of burnt toffee leather, the gleam of a gold clasp and the promise of a secret compartment. The Spy is calling and I can thankfully stop scrolling now that it is readily available again at Fendi.

Shop the Fendi Spy bag below:

Henrik Lischke is the senior fashion news and features editor at Grazia. Prior to that, he worked at British Vogue, and was junior fashion editor at The Sunday Times Style.