“The best way to explore the FENDI archives is through the Fendi wardrobes,” Kim Jones said at the release of the Autumn/Winter 2022 campaign this week. Upon presentation at Milan Fashion Week in February, the artistic director was heralded for his most compelling collection yet. Fusing the brand’s house codes with styles cues from winter 2000 and a modern sensibility.
Today the collection was immortalised in the fall/winter 2022 advertisement through a contemporary lens and starring the woman of the moment (and fittingly the queen of Y2K) Bella Hadid. Inspired by Delfina Delettrez walking into the Roman headquarters dressed in a printed blouse stolen from her mother’s wardrobe, the collection was born as Jones excavated the house’s history to rediscover Spring/Summer 1986: a celebration of Karl Lagerfeld’s love for the artistic movement.
Jones reworked the geometric patterns found within the 1986 collection with the sense of lightness seen in the 2000 winter season. What the British designer found was a perfect balance of strength and softness – a runway of powerful women in beautiful clothes. “It’s a wardrobe designed for every aspect of a woman’s life, for every generation,” Jones adds. “And it all started with Delfina.”
“It brings me directly to the history of my family. I saw these prints on myself; Kim saw them on Delfina,” explains Silvia Venturini Fendi. “What interests me the most about fashion is when it isn’t something just for the moment – and with FENDI, that is always the case, because it is never banal. There is always a story behind each piece, something a little different.”
Through wisps of chiffon tucked into elegant tweeds; delicate slip dresses paired with long cashmere gloves; stock shirting corseted into hyper-feminine forms; masculine tailoring imagined into cropped jackets, an equilibrium is found. Form and function is not lost on the clothing however and sees a blazer that detaches into a tailored gilet as well as a pocketed belt designed to both cinch the waist and hold a phone.
Accompanying accessories were designed by Venturini Fendi. In celebration of the Baguette’s 25th anniversary, three of its beloved previous editions are revived: in cashmere, in shearling-lined leather and in intarsia mink. In jewellery designed by Delfina Delettrez, monograms are supersized into ear cuffs while tennis bracelets are quietly inset with baguette crystals for an allusion to the FF logo. Strung from pendants and suspended as earrings, the Master Key motif is also introduced.
