During his tenure at Fendi, Kim Jones has repeatedly looked to the past to inform the present. The Fendi FW22 RTW show is no different, this time drawing from the distinct styling and geometric prints of Spring/Summer 1986 by Karl Lagerfeld – a collection celebrating the late creative director’s love for artistic movement – and pairing them with the diaphanous lightness of Fall/Winter 2000.
You’ll also enjoy:
Fendi Haute Couture SS22 Goes Back To The Future
Fendi Revives The Gentlemanly Roaring ‘20s for Men’s FW22 (Complete With NFTs)
Fendi & SKIMS Collide In A Skin-Tight Capsule To Make Kim²
“The best place to explore the FENDI archives is through the Fendi wardrobes,” notes Kim Jones. Indeed, the entire Fendi FW22 RTW collection stems from one wardrobe in particular; that of Delfina Delettrez, daughter of Silvia Venturini Fendi, who one day strolled into the Fendi headquarters in Rome wearing a printed blouse stolen from her mother’s wardrobe. “These are collections which, although they come from the past, feel very now,” added Jones.
Wispy chiffon slip dresses are teamed with tailored tweed and long cashmere gloves; shirting is reimagined with corsetry; masculine tailoring gets the cropped treatment, taking on a distinctly feminine form; and tops are cut in asymmetrical half-apron silhouettes. “It brings me directly to the history of my family. I saw these prints on myself; Kim saw them on Delfina,” explained Silvia Venturini Fendi of the collection.
“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.” Continuing the familial trend, jewellery is designed by Delfina Delettrez, with oversized architectural ear cuffs bearing the Fendi ‘F’ monogram, tennis bracelets inset with baguette crystals as a nod to the FF logo, and the Master Key motif suspended from earring and dangling from pendants.
Granted, it’s a good time to look to the past for Fendi. With the resurgence of Y2K style, archival Fendi sits at the heart of the trend. Propelled into the mainstream by Carrie Bradshaw toting its Baguette bag Sex and the City during the early 2000s (and subsequently having it stolen by a mugger), Fendi is well primed to release the new era-defining it girl bag of the 2020s. As it turns out, the new it girl bag is simply the old it girl bag, resurrected. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the Baguette bag has been revived in three previously beloved iterations – in cashmere, shearling-lined leather, and intarsia mink.
And Just Like That…an icon is reborn.
Words by T. Angel
