In the year that’s passed since Fendi’s last haute fourrure show, the fashion industry has had a change of heart regarding the use of fur. Gucci announced it would go fur-free last October, and in short order Michael Kors and Versace made similar proclamations. Fendi has not done the same, to be sure, but it surely can’t be a complete coincidence that it has dropped the fourrure moniker this season in favor of couture. Nor that it has expanded its purview to include many more non-fur pieces.
The novel idea this season was to treat non-fur materials in such ways that they resembled real fur. On the multicolored opening coat, for example, narrow strips of chiffon were frayed and stitched together so closely that the final product looked like it could’ve been intarsia’d mink. And take a gander at the skirt suit in Exit 25. That isn’t astrakhan, though it looks quite like it; rather it’s densely stitched sequins strategically placed to swirl like the fur they’re imitating. Savoir faire is savoir faire.
Of course, there was plenty of the authentic article, as well. But here, too, the emphasis was on thinking differently. Coats were the exception, not the rule. And a shaved mink inlaid with shearling spirals and boasting a fox shawl collar was indeed truly exceptional. The focus though was more on dresses, like a marabou feather frock in ballerina-pink with a caged waist that was the very definition of downy. Delicate crochet and even finer lace looked spiderweb-light.
As the culture shifts away from fur—the BBC reported last month that the U.K.’s Labour Party has pledged to ban all fur imports—Fendi will of necessity have to expand its materials repertoire, be it with lab-grown fur or other man-made textiles. Its artisans and ateliers are its patrimony. They represented themselves well tonight.
