and Adele did, too. They’d founded Fendi back in 1925 and, thanks to the shrewd hire of an
up-and-coming designer named Karl Lagerfeld in 1965, transformed it from a nuts-and-bolts
fur-and-leather-goods company into a major Roman maison. Soon the Fendis were provid-
ing costumes for some of cinema’s most iconic films while forging friendships with the likes
of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti.
Directors like these, Silvia learned, were just designers in another medium. They too had
taste and vision and an attention to detail that only the finest tailor could appreciate.
“My mother told me when they helped with Visconti’s Conversation Piece”—a 1974 film star-
ring Burt Lancaster—“there was a bedroom scene, and Visconti insisted there be linens stocked
inside the closet even if the doors of the closet were closed the entire shot. Why? Because
the actor had to know this, Visconti told her. If not, it would affect him differently.”FAST-FORWARD FORTY-PLUS YEARS AND
Silvia now is a titanic force in fashion, driv-
ing her namesake men’s-wear brand since- For the men’s Spring/Summer 2020
collection, she’s joined up with her own
auteur, Italian director Luca Guadagnino,
whose 2017 romantic coming-of-age drama,
Call Me by Your Name, starring Timothée
Chalamet and Armie Hammer, broke gay
and straight hearts alike and was nominated
for four Oscars, including best picture.
Luca and Silvia’s relationship is a close
one. In 2005, the company hired him to
shoot a short promotional film titled First
Sun, and Silvia liked it so much, she bagged
the idea of a fashion-show catwalk and ran
Luca’s film instead.
That work led to other projects, includ-
ing two of Luca’s feature-lengths, which
Silvia helped produce: 2010’s I Am Love,
starring Tilda Swinton as an expat house-
wife trapped in the stifling, moneyed upper
middle class of contemporary Milan, and
Suspiria, a 2018 remake of the 1977 Dario
Argento–helmed horror classic, starring
Dakota Johnson. And just like Fendis before
her, Silvia provided costumes and even her
mother’s jewelry, which Luca insisted be
from a certain era.
“You see?” she says. “He’s got this maniac
Visconti thing in him. Everything needs to
be exact.”
Amazingly, many of Luca’s initial sketches
for this collaboration were done on the set
of Suspiria while passing the time between
lighting changes.
“When I shoot, I’m not happy,” he says.
“But when I am designing or talking about
designing, it’s fantastic.”
For the hyperactive, multitalented film-
maker, executing multiple projects while
shooting a movie isn’t a distraction. It’s a re-
lease. In addition to this Fendi venture, he
was prepping a series for HBO while design-
ing houses on Lake Como and Aesop bou-
tiques in Rome and London.
Luca’s idea for the collection stemmed
from a farmhouse he recently purchased in
the north of Italy.
“And when he showed me these photos of
this beautiful place, we decided to explore
the notion of gardening, nature, and farm-
ing,” says Silvia. “But for Luca, the setup was
important. We had to tell the story first.”
“I wanted to capture a man wandering
in the nature that he has forged,” Luca ex-
plains. “This isn’t a person out there in the
wilderness living off scraps. It’s about a per-
son and about the garden he’s cultivated.
What is the art of gardening? What does it
mean to walk and bend nature to your will?
102 MARCH 2020Jacket ($1,690), shirt ($1,290), trousers ($990), loafers ($890), hat ($650), and socks ($190) by Fendi Men’s.
MENELIK PURYEAR (THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE). GROOMING: LUIS PAYNE. FOR STORE INFORMATION SEE PAGE 115.