Silvia Venturini Fendi is the crown princess of surprising subtext. "Nobody gets it," she said after her latest men's show. Was she pissed off by that? Was she pleased? One of the most attractive things about her is that she's almost as unreadable as her collections. Silvia is, for instance, obsessed with Bob Marley. Who knew? "He was so elegant in his jeans and T-shirt," she rhapsodized. "I used Jamaican colors in the accessories as an homage to him."
Nothing is ever what it seems at Fendi; the knack for creating ambiguity is something Silvia shares with Fendi's éminence grise, Karl Lagerfeld. The fact that today's lineup was ostensibly about the straightforward everyday—basics like blousons; macs; sweaters; jean jackets; Bermuda shorts; and, the signal look of the Milan season, suits with sandals—was surely a red rag to Silvia's bull. That distressed jean jacket? Honey, it was bonded leather. The jacket of a thousand pixels? A basket weave of leather so intricate the eye couldn't pick it apart.
It was as though the real world Silvia was reflecting on the runway existed simply so she could make a statement about escaping from it. Create your own reality, in other words. The instrument of escape she chose was headphones, created in tandem with Beats by Dr. Dre, that company's latest fashion collaboration (with, promised creative marketing officer Omar Johnson, more on the way). Fendi wrapped the Beats in bold shades of its signature Selleria leather, with croc at the top of the line. When this very limited edition becomes available at the end of the year, the waiting list will be taking no prisoners.
