This excellent collection nailed a tricky-to-pin sweet spot in the Venn diagram between conventionally wearable and perversely covetable. Silvia Venturini Fendi did this by blending banal but disparate menswear elements, zhoozhifying them via fabulous Fendi fabrication and a peppering of double-F branding, then finally adding an intriguing dusting of illustrations from the pen of “Big” Sue Tilley, the artist and once muse of Lucian Freud.
Like a slow Friday afternoon spent in the office savoring a successful week’s work (and with an awesome party ahead to plan for that evening), there was a lot here to relish. Fendi’s mood board included an Andy Warhol self-portrait in executive drag; Danny Dyer manspreading in Fila short shorts in The Business; Christian Bale scowling in suspenders in American Psycho; a silver-haired granny in a pink twinset; some Martin Parrs from his Common Sense series; and a wonderful set of shots of mid-’80s suits commuting in what looked like C&A ski jackets.
Venturini Fendi said preshow: “Masculine executives used to be very rigid, in a box. But now it is different . . . I am very interested in normality; it is something I am obsessed by, but it is the Fendi normality.” Which was only notionally normal at all. On a set modeled after Fendi’s own executive HQ in Rome’s Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, the models wore a mix of luxurified casualwear and emasculated corporatewear, with double-F logo ties, suspenders, and baseball caps. Oversize suede sportswear jackets and nylon bags were reversible to offer bolder but suppressed incarnations an outlet. Wide pin-tuck pleated pants were worn under sleeveless work shirts and above slingback loafers. Oversize track jackets strafed with pink panels were cut in leather. Work macs, suits, and shorts suits were cut in sheer checked organza. The penultimate outfit, a mink blazer worn over a pair of tan shorts and slingbacks, was perhaps the crowning example of what Venturini Fendi called her “Skype looks”—respectable above the waist, cut loose and laid-back below.
The contribution of Tilley, who sat magnificently backstage watching the show take shape, was a series of illustrations that came printed on silk shirting, reproduced in leather and on metal charms and tags, and inlaid onto bags. They included bananas, a lamp, a cup of tea, and a corkscrew. “Just normal things,” said Venturini Fendi. Tilley is famous in Britain for being very “normal”—although now retired, she spent many years working in a government welfare office in central London—but also for having a fabulously rich second life. She was a contemporary and friend of Leigh Bowery, and for a few years was a model for Freud: His 1995 portrait of her, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, sold for £17 million at auction in 2004. Since retirement, Tilley has focused on her own art, which is what, she explained, led to this collaboration.
“I’m good friends with Julian Ganio [Fendi menswear stylist], and a few years ago when I had an exhibition, he very much liked what I’d drawn and he bought a few,” she said. “Then he showed Silvia my pictures. And it just happened! It was hilarious. I’d just moved to the seaside and was surrounded by boxes. Julian Facebook-messaged me ideas, then I drew them and messaged them back. So modern. And the actual banana that features on many items, Silvia was having it for her lunch and liked the way the skin fell. They sent me a photo of the banana and I drew it and sent it back! So that’s Silvia’s lunch on all these garments. That’s my corkscrew I’ve had for years. And the lamp is from the new flat. When I moved in, this horrible old man had had it before and he left his lamp behind. Really cheap and nasty. So I just drew it and here it is! The bags are amazing.”
Over at the mood board, Venturini Fendi said that part of the inspiration for this collection was the relaxed attitude of her company’s CEO, Pietro Beccari. Would, we wondered, the Fendi executive class be encouraged to wear short shorts and slingback loafers this summer, whether Skyping or not? “Oh, my God, yes,” said Venturini Fendi. “I can’t wait to see them.” Beccari looked on cautiously and kept his counsel. Even though he doesn’t entirely subscribe to this collection’s witty subversion of masculine uniforms—which is a pity, because that sheer check shorts suit would work on him—there were plenty of others outside this show afterward excitedly discussing their favorite pieces.
