BEAUTY: Clothing--Fendi

Fendi was one of two guest designers at this year's Pitti Imagine Uomo in Florence, Italy and creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi took the opportunity to show off a new, €50 million state-of-the-art Fendi leather goods factory located about a half hour outside of Florence. This impressive facility is designed with advanced energy efficiency and minimal landscape impact in mind. The main part of the building has a green roof full of flowers and herbs and beautifully disappears into the Tuscan terrain.

The show was actually set inside the factory floor and attendees were allowed access beforehand to wander around, observe how Fendi leather goods are made, and even interact with and ask questions of the artisans at work. Once it was time for the show, it was easy to see how the artisans themselves and their tools and workwear inspired this Spring Summer '24 collection. The aprons and smocks worn by these craftspeople translated into some interesting garments. Aprons and tool belts became skirts and halter tops, some long and flowing. Smocks became long shirts. While many designers have been working with the apron and workwear idea for many, many seasons now (Thom Browne, Junya Watanabe), this iteration feels slim, natural, and sophisticated. Some outerwear pieces were printed with patterns for Fendi products while a few pieces toward the end of the show were illustrated with actual tools of the trade and floral designs from the rooftop garden! In an eco vein, many garments were dyed from botanical pigments, while other pieces featured a softened F-logo jacquard in indigo and undyed denim. And shoes were shiny rubber clogs. For her bow, SIlvia Venturini Fendi came out with a gaggle of artisans from the factory floor. Do take a look at the fascinating video...the first three quarters are shots of the facility and guests arriving but if you want to scrub through to the show, it starts at 52:25.

https://www.fendi.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Milano Moda Uomo

Before we move on to Paris and our final leg of Fashion Month, let's look at some superb shoes from Milano Moda Uomo. It's sandal season!

Silvia Venturini Fendi worked with film director Luca Guadagnino on a Fendi SS '20 collection based on gardening and beekeeping. Pieces were luxe versions of tan and olive workwear but the shoes were wonderful. Sandals with chunky straps in snakeskin were only upstaged by some great croc loafers and Mary Janes.

And Rocco Iannone at Pal Zileri showed a sweet open-toed sandal version of a deck shoe/driving moc in fun colors!

https://www.fendi.com
https://www.palzileri.com

BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Milano Moda Uomo Fall-Winter '17-'18

Now that it's run and done, Milano Moda Uomo was fairly subtantial this year with a nice mix of really interesting collections, and several with some special details. Here are a few:

The power of positive words--to save us from the global spread of righteous darkness and the New Dark Ages--was on display at Fendi. For this Fall-Winter '17-'18 collection at Milano Moda Uomo, Silvia Venturini Fendi posted onto her mood board some inspirational lines from Ernest Hemingway about the positive strategies to try before letting the negative take hold. She said: "I want to be optimistic, need to be. These were simple words, universal words like love, listen, try. I was reading this and thinking it is so easy if you follow these universal rules." So we have in a clear, bold font the words LOVE, YES, THINK, TRY, BLISS, HOPE on head bands and calmly spelled out on jackets as a gentle but firm reminder to stay human in these trying times.

Salvatore Ferragamo, a company founded by a cobbler in 1923, always has a lovely array of shoes to show in their collections, as one would expect. And for this FW outing, the house showed a shoe with a lug sole that splayed out, ending up looking like the wearer has webbed feet. I kinda like it...

And Prada had some truly funky shoes to go with a fun, funky, 1970s-by-way-of-the-Pacific-Northwest theme. Fur covered sneakers, loafers, and chukka boots are eclectic...

...and she had jewelry to match. Shells and feathers hung from chains while trimmed, bark-covered tree branches looked like pieces of coral dangling around the necks of models. And to complete the West Coast-New-Age-hippie vibe, large chunks of amethyst crystal, citrine, and quartz crystal were thrown in to gild the lily.

While we're on accessories, I think Giorgio Armani invented a new one. I know, right? How could anyone invent a new piece of clothing. But who knew: a sleeve-scarf? Here it is. A piece of knitwear with sleeves at either end, but with plenty of material in between to drape up an arm, a shoulder, wrap around a neck or cross a chest, and travel down the other side to become a sleeve once again. By description alone, it sounds ridiculous (and it is NOT a shrug!) but look...look! It is fairly fabulous and makes me wonder how I have stayed warm without one!

And while we're on scarves, we move from the sublime to the humorous with MSGM's take on the silk head scarf Queen Elizabeth II wears when not at Buckingham Palace. Whether driving a royal Range Rover on the grounds of Sandringham or attending The Royal Windsor Horse Show, the monarch often sports a scarf on her head along with quilted jackets or coats one would wear "in the country." MSGM hilariously sent models down the runway in such quilted and country outer wear...with a silk head scarf just like HRH. Proof that artistic inspiration really can come from anywhere.

Now, on to the Paris shows!

https://www.fendi.com
http://www.ferragamo.com
http://www.prada.com/
http://www.armani.com/
http://www.msgm.it/

Fendi In The Trevi

OH. MY. GOD.
For the end of the women's Paris Fashion Week, Fendi shuttled guests via jet to ROME where they staged their Fall-Winter '16-'17 show at--in--ON--that city's iconic Trevi Fountain. Which is appropriate since Fendi just funded a multi-million dollar cleaning and renovation of the breathtaking landmark. The translucent runway was mounted at water level and made it seem as though the models were literally walking on water. The clothing was reminiscent of Italy in 1890 with some Aesthetic Movement and Art Nouveau touches here and there. And of course how can one stage a show with an Italian motif without using the music of Nino Rota from classic Fellilni films: here we hear excerpts from Fellini's films "Casanova," "Roma" (appropriately from the Vatican Fashion Show sequence, previously here), and possibly my all-time favorite Fellini, "Juliet of the Spirits." But of course the ultimate Fellini-Trevi reference is the legendary fountain scene from "La Dolce Vita" (previously here and here) featuring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg romping in the water in the middle of the night.

Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi came out for bows at the end of the show both for the beautiful collection and for the gloriously renovated, now-pristine Trevi.

http://www.fendi.com/