Fendi's Five Sisters: Lagerfeld's Shaved Fur, the Baguette and LVMH

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Fendi began in 1925 when Adele and Edoardo Fendi opened a fur and leather shop on Via del Plebiscito in Rome, adding a second store on Via Piave in 1932. In 1946 their five daughters, Paola, Anna, Franca, Carla and Alda, each took a 20 percent share and split the business by function: furs, leather goods, purchasing, commercial strategy and sales. In 1965 they hired a young Karl Lagerfeld, who had furs shaved, dyed, cut into strips and mixed with fabric, leading to Fendi's first commercial fur line in 1969 and ready-to-wear in 1977. In 1966 he sketched the double F logo known as the Zucca print.

Licensing followed in the 1980s, including perfume in 1985 and Fendi Casa in 1987, and the first U.S. boutique opened on Fifth Avenue in 1989. Anna's daughter Silvia Venturini Fendi designed the Baguette bag in 1997 and the Peekaboo in 2009. In 1999 LVMH and Prada bought 51 percent of Fendi for $545 million to outbid Gucci, and after losses of about 20 million euros in both 2001 and 2002, LVMH bought out Prada's share. Fendi staged a show on the Trevi Fountain for its 90th anniversary in 2016 and moved its headquarters into Rome's Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, a building constructed under Mussolini, rejecting the criticism. Kim Jones left in 2024, Silvia stepped down in 2025, and Maria Grazia Chiuri became chief creative officer.

• In October 2007 Fendi sent 88 models down a runway on the Great Wall of China.
• The episode says cash from the Baguette bag helped subsidize the house's labor-intensive artisanal work.
• A long counterfeiting dispute with the retailer Burlington ended in 2010 with a settlement of more than $10 million.
• Fendi provided wardrobes for films including Evita and The Royal Tenenbaums.
• Under Kim Jones, appointed in September 2020, Fendi collaborated with Skims in 2021 and Versace in 2022.