This season’s Fendi woman lives in a flux between the Forties and Eighties. But the connecting point between the film-noir silhouettes – power-shouldered raincoats, fur stoles, mid-calf pencil skirts – and sportswear branding – monogrammed fuzzy sweatshirts with the new Fendi/Fila collaboration logo – was an array of delicately embroidered scarves knotted daintily about the neck. Some of these were worn as a cowgirl square over a bare clavicle, others were built into blouses or partnered with knee-high western boots. In ecru, navy or khaki silk, each scarf is emblazoned with the house’s famed ‘F’ in needlepoint – a consonant constantly centre stage – and bordered by a floral motif or stitched scalloped edges. “Women once hand-embroidered handkerchiefs with their initials to give to their men going off to war,” the creative director of accessories, Silvia Venturini Fendi, says. That romantic gesture was also a powerful one: “Those women didn’t stay at home sewing, they were firmly in real life, with their heads held high.” In fortifying these symbols of feminine charm (more ‘F’s), Fendi offers an old-school breed of elegance refreshed in this silk jacquard-spotted scarf-blouse. A return to craft rewrites our logo-laden reality, with a touch of the human hand.
Make-up: Sandra Cooke at the Wall Group using Lord & Berry. Models: Iris Dubois at Premier Models and Rue Ingram at D1 Models. Casting: Svea Greichgauer at AM Casting. Set design: Amy Stickland at Webber. Manicure: Saffron Goddard using Le Vernis and La Crème Main by Chanel. Lighting: Emma Ercolani. Photographic assistant: Fuminori Homma. Styling assistants: Charis Lorraine and Benedetta Baruffi. Set-design assistant: Nienta Nixon. Production: Webber. Post-production: D-Touch Studio.
This story originally featured in the Autumn/Winter 2018 issue of AnOther Magazine which is on sale internationally now.
