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There were layers of elements on display at the Fendi Menswear Spring Summer 2024 show held in Capunnuccia just outside of Florence last night: the clothing, naturally, but also the location itself. The new Fendi Factory, where all the accessories featured in the collection were made, was granted LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum Certification.
The moment also marks the first leather factory in the luxury sector to receive such a certification.
It’s a location that has a special history for the Fendi brand and family. It’s the region where Adele Fendi, grandmother to the current Fendi Artistic Director for menswear Silvia Venturini Fendi, travelled from Rome in order to learn the leather crafting skill that has been an underpinning motif of the brand ever since.
Taking us inside the factory—fully staffed, for full effect, of course—was also a visual reminder of the actual craftsmanship, the work and artistry behind Fendi creations. Made even more obvious with the looks that came down the hallway slash runway: leather aprons and belts favoured by artisans and craftsman to contain the tools of their trade.
Paired with crisp shirting, ties, and contrasting with that familiar razor-sharp Fendi tailoring, the brand defined the assemblage as the “corporate artisan”. Perhaps one of the most accurate definitions of the luxury fashion sector and its weaving of traditional crafts of leatherworking, tailoring and sewing into big money business.
Accessories played to this trope brilliantly. Jacquard “lunch” bags and reworked Fendi logo toolkits could have come straight off the worksite. A very tasteful worksite.
But even the most “traditional” of corporate attire was playfully tweaked. Shirting elongated into more of a painter smock while others were deconstructed into halter-necks, their sleeves trailing behind.
