Since 2008, the Peekaboo bag has become a hallmark expression of Roman craftsmanship fused with an intimate sense of FENDI womanhood. Designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi and premiered at the FENDI Women’s Spring/Summer 2009 show, the Peekaboo was a reaction - a design born of the will to redefine modern accessories in the waning years of ‘it-bag’ ubiquity.
Clean and minimal, geometric and curvilinear all at once, the Peekaboo is a bag engineered with both beauty and playful functionality at its core. Its original trapezium-shaped form took the spirit of a mid-century frame bag and transformed it into an architectural feat of contemporary leather artistry in the FENDI ateliers.
Marrying supple and rigid forms, gravity and structure, the Peekaboo is a shapeshifter. Centred around a double turnlock upper frame, the gusseted pocket construction and weighted keyhole hardware causes a suspended drape when open, creating the bag’s signature curved ‘smile’ that reveals its luxurious inner craftsmanship.
“There was an invasion of bags on the catwalk everywhere at the time, so I really wanted to create a bag that only a real leather goods maker like FENDI could possibly make,” says Silvia Venturini Fendi. “It was the moment to set things straight with a new classic. I wanted to evoke the beauty of a vintage bag with a lock, but for the first time make it about the movement of the bag. At FENDI, lightness has always been so important. When you think of a FENDI coat, sometimes the inside is even more accurate and precise than the outside. Things are reversible. You can see it is FENDI because of the way it moves - because it is light, and it follows the body. With the Peekaboo, I really wanted to produce that idea in a bag. That's why I selected a very soft leather, as the bag was shown open and inside you could reveal a different colour of a very beautiful glove leather. It is a bag to be experienced: when you put your hands inside a Peekaboo, you can feel some of the softest leather in the world.”
