Crumbs! Lidl’s Croissant Bag takes a bite out of the luxury market

Twenty-six years ago, the Italian fashion house Fendi launched a little brown shoulder bag called the Baguette.
It became one of the most iconic accessories of the past century: Elizabeth Taylor owned 18, Julia Roberts loved them, and there is barely an episode of Sex and the City and its spin-off And Just Like That… where Carrie Bradshaw isn’t seen with one clasped beneath her arm, just like a French baguette.
Well, I am afraid the show is over, Fendi. This week I got my hands on the hottest new ‘It’ handbag of the season, also inspired — be it slightly less subtly — by beige, baked goods and equally likely to cause a commotion when it hits the shelves next Thursday, just in time for London Fashion Week next month.
Introducing the Croissant Bag. And the hot new label? Well, it’s Lidl.
Having won the battle for your shopping basket — the German supermarket is the most popular in the UK, according to a YouGov survey — Lidl is now coming for your wardrobe.
On Thursday the supermarket will launch its first ever handbag in collaboration with the New York-based designer, Nik Bentel, available for £50 from Bentel’s website.
Designed in the shape of a roll-top bakery paper bag with a croissant-shaped zip purse inside, it’s a nod to Lidl’s bakery aisle, in particular its all-butter croissants. Lidl says it sells 112 of them every minute. And if you’re a Lidl pastry fan, that figure won’t surprise you. They are that good.
“We wanted to find a food object that people gravitate towards and one that has a cult following,” said Bentel, who has made his name making wacky food-inspired accessories that usually sell for hundreds of pounds.
Last year he designed the viral blue and yellow “pasta bag” from leather in the shape of a box of farfalle and with a gold chain. It goes without saying Bentel is a Lidl fan: he is half Italian and spent a lot of time in Europe as a child. There are a handful of Lidl stores in New York too. “In New York Lidl is just as famous for its croissants as in the UK, and so it made sense to bring our worlds together,” he said.
The battle of the posh supermarket tote bag has been rumbling for years. In March last year, the handbag designer Anya Hindmarch partnered up with Tesco, Co-op, Asda and Morrisons to design the £10 Universal Bag, a large canvas bag made from recyclable plastic and sporting Hindmarch’s signature googly eyes.
Waitrose followed with a £12 black-and-white tote bag in collaboration with Lulu Guinness. Having entered the ring, Lidl has thrown down the most in-your-face gauntlet with this new bag. But I can’t hate it.
If you like cutesy things like me, you’ll love the mirror keyring and the fact you can choose from three handles: a blue fabric strap, a beige leather loop or a gold chain. If you are after practicality, you’ll like that each coin purse comes with a trolley coupon for your next big shop. As for the size, it’s the perfect fit for your keys, phone and, naturally, a croissant.
It’s so crass that it’s cool, and I am predicting it will go stratospheric.
That is because in the past five years Lidl has had a rebirth among my generation (I am 30). Today there is as much frenzy around the supermarket as there is around other affordable, unglamorous zeitgeist brands like Greggs — which has its own line at Primark — and Wetherspoon. It’s not just a supermarket, it’s a lifestyle, a culture.
Lidl launched its first collection of own-brand clothes in 2021, including T-shirts emblazoned with the blue and yellow logo. Not long after came a pair of £12.99 Lidl yellow and blue trainers. They flew off the shelves, with one pair selling every three seconds.
This summer, Lidl has expanded its wardrobe to more T-shirts (£4.99), sliders (£5.99), a brand new bum bag (£4.99) and even a pair of swimming trunks for a fiver.
The supermarket has also recruited Lidl ambassadors — “Lidfluelncers” — who rock up at festivals giving away its merchandise. Which is perhaps why at last weekend’s We Out Here festival in Devon, dozens of twenty-somethings were seen raving in Lidl bucket hats and shell jackets. Name another supermarket that has that effect? I’ll wait.
Growing up in the noughties, Lidl was a supermarket people turned their nose up at. There were no big brands in there, just bargain knock-offs displayed on run-down shelves. The place you wanted to shop when I was a teen was Sainsbury’s, which was in the midst of an 11-year partnership with Jamie Oliver, still considered a kitchen pin-up.
A cost of living crisis later and it’s discount supermarkets that rule. Two thirds of UK shoppers, including myself, have switched some or all of their big food shops to either Lidl or Aldi. Leading the big swap are millennials and Gen Z.
My take is that this is down to its fashionably bargain prices, genuinely good own-brands (two words: Maribel jam. I’m the deputy food editor so I should know), the themed food weeks it holds (Greek week for the win) and, of course, the bakery section.
If it’s not the croissants I am scoffing, it’s the Lidl brownies. And that’s not to mention the middle aisle where you will find all kinds of treats in the bargain bins.
And as of next week, it’s probably where you’ll find fashion editors shopping for their summer wardrobe.