{"id":53374,"date":"2022-03-24T16:35:44","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T16:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=53374"},"modified":"2022-03-24T21:19:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T21:19:45","slug":"nikolai-von-bismarck-the-fendi-set-book","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/nikolai-von-bismarck-the-fendi-set-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikolai von Bismarck Releases New Photography Book ‘The Fendi Set’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lila Grace Moss Hack and Kate Moss photographed by Nikolai von Bismarck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\u201cVain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world\u2019s view of us<\/em>,\u201d wrote Virginia Woolf in her 1925 novel Orlando<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That which grabs our attention and maintains a stronghold on our minds in our formative years of adolescence tends to occupy a perennially special place in our hearts. For Fendi designer Kim Jones, that singular, insatiable obsession was sparked by a revolutionary brigade of English writers, artists, philosophers, and intellectuals dubbed the Bloomsbury Set, with literary legend Woolf at its center. Indeed, the Set and their travels (in some cases, travails) served as the foundational inspiration for Jones\u2019s current tenure at Fendi.<\/p>\n

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In September 2020, the announcement of Jones\u2019s appointment as artistic director of Italian fashion house Fendi\u2019s womenswear division was met with an unprecedented degree of well-deserved hype. That coming January, Jones\u2019s debut haute couture collection did anything but disappoint. Working alongside Silvia Venturini Fendi herself, Jones recruited his most beloved muses \u2014 from Demi Moore<\/a> and Kate Moss to Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington \u2014 to take the runway in an assortment of ethereal and otherworldly garments, sartorially expressing his enduring adoration for the Bloomsbury Set while simultaneously paying tribute to Fendi\u2019s storied heritage through the Spring\/ Summer 2021 couture collection<\/a> that was shown at the Palais Brongniart in Paris.<\/p>\n

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Now, with British-German photographer Count Nikolai von Bismarck\u2019s trained eye, Jones authentically captures the essence of the Bloomsbury Set in a new book: from England to Paris, then Rome. Jones\u2019s Bloomsbury-inspired collection appears right at home in aged images by Bismarck and altered to look as though they\u2019d been taken 100 years ago. Available to purchase from early April in the U.S., the pages of the artfully curated Rizzoli tome The Fendi Set: From Bloomsbury to Borghese<\/em> unfurl as von Bismarck follows in the footsteps of the Set, tracing the interwoven connections from Charleston to the Roman birthplace of the House of Fendi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Bella Hadid photographed by Nikolai von Bismarck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Von Bismarck hopped on a Zoom call with me after two hours of signing books alongside Jones. It was the very night of the launch party for The Fendi Set at London\u2019s Royal Academy of Arts.<\/p>\n

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Recalling the process of building the book, he told GRAZIA USA<\/em>, \u201cWe wanted to expand on Kim\u2019s vision of what he\u2019d already done \u2014 what he couldn\u2019t necessarily portray beyond the show. We wanted to give it even more context, flesh it out a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The 20th-century British creative collective included the likes of modernist writer Woolf, her sister, painter Vanessa Bell, artist Duncan Grant, and author Vita Sackville-West. Von Bismarck examines the relationship between the group\u2019s roots in the luscious green, mist-coated hills of England and their adoration for Fendi\u2019s home of Rome.<\/p>\n

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First, we follow von Bismarck\u2019s enchanting lens through the English countryside with a frisson of de\u0301ja\u0300 vu. From there, we time-travel to modern-day Paris, chronicling Jones\u2019s Fendi debut and featuring the likes of Bella Hadid and Cara Delevingne. After that, we thoughtfully consider the ever-entwined ties of the Bloomsbury Set to Rome. In an homage to Fendi\u2019s rich origin story, von Bismarck features an elegant portrait of three generations of women in the Fendi dynasty: Anna Fendi, Delfina Delettrez Fendi, Leonetta Luciano Fendi, and Silvia Venturini Fendi, draped in Jones\u2019s first ready-to-wear collection for the Italian Maison. From city to city, \u201cI was going from one form of romance to another,\u201d explained von Bismarck.<\/p>\n

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With the volume\u2019s foreword written by Woolf admirer, Academy Award winner, and star of the 1992 adaptation of Woolf\u2019s Orlando<\/em>, Tilda Swinton<\/a>, it also features actress Gwendoline Christie modeling Fendi Couture and channeling the formidable essence of Woolf at Knoll in England, where Orlando<\/em> was based.<\/p>\n

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Kesewa Aboah photographed by Nikolai von Bismarck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This is only the latest collaboration between the photographer and designer. While Jones built his career in London, von Bismarck built a parallel path elsewhere, studying photography at the Parsons Paris School of Art and Design, and working under the inimitable Annie Leibovitz for two years. After photographing Princess Beatrice of York and producing an exhibit of his work in Ethiopia, von Bismarck sought the guidance of a master of his craft.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI started off by getting advice from this incredible war photographer, Don McCullin. I worked a lot in Africa, Burma, and in Cuba taking a lot of reportage photos,\u201d he recalled. After looking through von Bismarck\u2019s photojournalist work, McCullin affirmed his obvious talent while suggesting he fine tune his technique. \u201cHe said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to learn discipline and patience. You\u2019ve got to do a black and white portraiture book. That\u2019ll teach you to stay in one place, and really learn your craft. Once you do that, you can go and do whatever you like.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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After going to Jones with his new notes from McCullin, the Fendi designer suggested the two of them create a portraiture book together, beginning the pair\u2019s vast collaborative relationship.<\/p>\n

For their sophomore publication, von Bismarck began by documenting the fittings for Jones\u2019s inaugural Fendi collection in honor of the Bloomsbury Set.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Photographed by Nikolai von Bismarck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\u201cIt was an incredible experience to watch all of this going on, and to really learn. I was watching Kim [Jones] and Silvia [Venturini Fendi] discussing how they\u2019d put the clothes together, Alister Mackie was deconstructing the clothes, and Amanda Harlech was walking me through it. While I was videoing and taking photos, I\u2019d be there for days on end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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And although the inspiration may have seemed obscure to some, for von Bismarck, the Bloomsbury influence was no surprise. \u201cKim felt very closely tied to the Bloomsbury Group because he grew up in the same village as a lot of them had lived. He spent a lot of time going to Charleston and doing art classes there,\u201d he explained. \u201cHe was obsessed from a young age, and you really see that obsession now.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s got first editions of Orlando, an unbelievable collection of books written by the Bloomsbury Group, pieces of art, furniture painted by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. It\u2019s an unbelievable obsession. It\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Recalling his time at the atelier and looking back on his collaborator\u2019s first year at Fendi, von Bismarck remarked, \u201cI love his willingness to look into the archive and the history of the house, as well as his own personal journey. The way that he would dive, both into the archive at Fendi and look at all the leather goods and such, but also how he had personalized it. I think he\u2019s done that seamlessly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With Amanda Harlech as lead stylist, Jerry Stafford served as lead researcher. In the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown, the team ate, lived, and breathed everything to do with the Bloomsbury Set, from chatting about Sackville-West and Woolf \u2019s wardrobe choices at lunch, to taking walks to the Roman Anglican cemetery where Woolf\u2019s heroes, English poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, were buried. Continuing to connect the dots between the Bloomsbury Set and its Roman ties, Jones and von Bismarck quickly honed in on the cemetery as an essential photography destination for the tome. When it was discovered that Duncan Grant was provided a grant at the Villa de Medici and had a studio nearby, that too became a necessary stop along the way.<\/p>\n

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Kate Moss photographed by Nikolai von Bismarck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Back in England, taking photos at the Charleston farmhouse, von Bismarck and the Fendi team were introduced to scholars and devotees of the bohemian renegades. Eventually, they were pointed in the direction of Bloomsbury scholar and New York-based professor, Dr. Mark Hussey. Said the photographer, \u201cIt was amazing that we could go through most of this on Zoom during the pandemic. He helped us go through the New York Public Library, research, and find all the actual letters that the Bloomsbury Set had written from Italy, back to their various members.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Filled with original letter excepts, intimate diary entries, still lifes, and landscape imagery with a continuous human element running throughout, the book also was inspired by Victorian- era British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron\u2019s pivotal soft-focus method for inspiration, von Bismarck said: \u201cShe was taking photos around the 1870s and 1880s, and that was quite amazing because she happened to be Virginia Woolf \u2019s great aunt. She was a great reference point.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bringing an unmitigated level of authenticity to his work, von Bismarck diversified his photographic techniques throughout the illustrious voyage. \u201cWe used expired 8×10 Polaroid film, and we used a French printing technique from the 1890s to give it that sense of romance,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe expired Polaroid film made it feel quite ghostly. I wanted the pictures to feel like they were found photographs. Almost as if Duncan Grant could have taken the photographs in his studio, and you may have just found them in a drawer.<\/p>\n

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Cara Delevingne photographed by Nikolai von Bismarck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\u201cA lot of the processes we used were from the time that they lived. Some of them were from the \u201840s, some of them were from the \u201830s. The cameras were all from that period as well, so they were those big ones where you put the sheet over your head, and then you click the button and it goes, \u2018PSHHH!\u2019 You have to stand completely still for 10 or 15 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Von Bismarck knew from the project\u2019s inception that he wanted to mix and match an array of photographic methods throughout the final work. \u201cI knew about the Bloomsbury Set through school. I had read many articles, and a couple of the books before all of this,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when Kim was so obsessed, I really got excited with him. I thought, \u2018This is incredible.\u2019 They had the Omega Workshops, which is where they collaborated when they were quite young, and they were doing everything from the marbling on books, to setting the individual type font, to then creating their own type fonts, and so on. They were painting in different styles. One of them was an art critic; one of them was an economist. It was such a rich topic that I felt that all these different photographic processes \u2014 as complicated as it made my life \u2014 would reflect and mirror the Bloomsbury Set quite well. Because it was the same kind of feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Becoming the modern equivalent of the Bloomsbury Set, this band of Fendi creatives joined forces to create an ethereal and mystifying tome, recounting the steps of these prolific creatives of the past. Immortalizing their immeasurable influence through poignant imagery and radiant sartorial means, the Fendi crew brought together intellectuals, scholars, artists, fashion designers, and photographers of our own time \u2014 just like their predecessors.<\/p>\n

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