Between Karl Lagerfeld, Silvia Venturi Fendi, and whoever orchestrates the accessories at Fendi, it’s all flowing together in a hard-to-achieve way that balances high fashion and cleverly coded items with a sense of fun. At today’s show, for a start, there were the neat boxy-shouldered dresses and coats which Venturi Fendi described as “a romantic uniform for a strong and powerful woman of today.” And then there was Karl Lagerfeld, talking in a pre-chat about his vast collection of antique table linen and bed linen: “Since a boy, I always thought it was the top of luxury to have clean, white cotton sheets.” Out of that Lagerfeld treasure chest came the inspiration behind the finely scalloped-edged and embroidered silk neckerchiefs and white collars.
For a general comparison, you might flick over to search Sean Young’s deathlessly chic fitted suits and dresses as the office replicant in the original Blade Runner. That movie was released in 1982, when there was also a pop-cultural craze for the ’40s going on. Somehow, all those ingredients feel spot-on now—’40s, ’80s, a touch of film noir, a pinch of sci-fi. But it needs something else to separate it from appropriation; something to throw it a bit off the obvious—although, if you please, not something just for the sake of randomness. The job was efficiently done through the styling of classily minimal cowboy boots throughout the show. So it became a look that was not to do with costume; rather it was something contemporary.
With the clarity and playfulness of the way Fendi double-F beige-brown logo patterns were deployed over everything from tights to fur sweatshirts to flocked trenchcoats and baguette bags, there was a lot to see—and a lot for young fashion fanatics, and the super-wealthy, to aspire to. And that has to be healthy for this brand’s fortunes.
