Silvia Venturini Fendi, Artistic Director of Accessories and Menswear, presented her elegantly utilitarian Spring/Summer 2024 Men’s collection at the innovative new FENDI Factory in the Tuscan hills. Opened in 2022, the FENDI Factory is designed for artisans of the future and is expected to craft 35 to 40 percent of the Maison’s leathergoods. The collection is both a celebration of this new adventure and an historic return to Florence, where Silvia Venturini Fendi’s grandmother Adele Fendi learned the craft of leatherworking nearly a century ago.
Presented in the atrium of the FENDI Factory, the collection celebrates the archetype of the ‘corporate artisan’ with sophisticated expressions of FENDI craftsmanship. A workwear vibe was omnipresent in the silhouettes, including a repurposed apron and tools tattooed on a bag. Games of proportion abound, from shrunken ribbed body tanks to high-wasted suit trousers and knee-length dress shirts buttoned to the elbow.
Materials include light summer wools and nettle fiber knitwear, yarn-dyed with vegetal pigments of acacia, juniper, henna and poppy. Woven paper textiles and silk follow in the same spirit. In homage to the Italian art of basket weaving, FF ‘tweed’ is woven into coated cotton and linen shirts or a featherweight knit shearling coat. Trompe l’oeil effects showcase the prowess of artisans, from tonal jacquards and cotton floral embroidery to a contrasting tack-stitch motif for evening. The color palette features warm and comfortable neutral tones of green, terracotta and blue alongside traditional FENDI black, grey, beige and white.
The accessories collection is a playful exploration of the ‘corporate artisan’ with woven baskets and jacquard lunch bags or embroidered raffia bags. The collection is punctuated by the FENDI Kengo Kuma project, a new artistic dialogue between Italy and Japan that applies Kuma’s architectural principles to Peekaboo, Baguette Soft Trunk and FENDI Flow sneakers constructed in traditional waranshi paper, woven bamboo, birch bark and Tusan olivewood.
Accessories designed by Delfina Delettrez Fendi, Artistic Director of Jewelry, play on everyday elements from the FENDI Factory with an irreverent twist, such as locker key-shaped pendants, ‘Made in Fendi’ dog tags, ‘StaFF Only’ pins and 1925 hoop earrings.
Photo: © ARR
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