SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 GQ.COM.AU 203P
eople often have a certain
idea of those who work
in the fashion industry.
Designers, especially.
They can seem cold and
unapproachable, insecure
and short-tempered, and they tend to
dress as though life were one long
funeral procession.
Of all the fashion insiders who should
fit this mould, Silvia Venturini Fendi is
perhaps the most likely. She has known
Karl Lagerfeld since she was a child and
her very name is a byword for high
fashion. Which is why it’s surprising to
find that Fendi is the least fashion-y
fashion person we’ve ever encountered.
She’s not even dressed in black.
We meet at Sydney’s Park Hyatt,
whose combination of privacy and
harbourside views has made it a favourite of visiting celebs. We join
Fendi in a secluded meeting room, where she is seated with her
assistant. But as fancy as the hotel is – and it’s fancy – Fendi is
determined to leave it.
This is her first visit to Australia and Fendi is hoping to expand on
the series of landmarks that comes with trips like this. Namely:
airport, hotel, Fendi boutique, hotel, airport. It’s also a warm, sunny
afternoon and Fendi has been joined by her adult son, Giulio – founder
of custom surf board company, Pool House Project. “He’s obsessed
with surfing,” says Fendi. “So I was at the beach all morning.”
Weather aside, our interview takes place during an interesting
climate. Not just for Fendi or for fashion, but for the world. Fendi’s
AW17 menswear collection made its way down the runway on
January 16; four days before Donald Trump stood before the “largest
audience ever to witness an inauguration, period” and became the
45 th POTUS. It would be easy to imagine a sombre collection that
reflected an uncertain future. But Fendi didn’t take the bait. “I have
no choice but to be optimistic,” she said before the show. “I have
children and grandchildren.”
Instead, Fendi delivered sporty silhouettes, bright Pop Art-y colours
and upbeat slogans. There was a zipper with a tag that read “BLISS”;
a jumper printed with “LOVE”; a jacket emblazoned with “HOPE”;
and, of course, the magic word that made it all possible: “FENDI”.
Critics were clearly feeling the good vibes, too. Vogue called the
collection “one of the deftest, most sympathetic and
positive collections of this season”.
“It’s a moment where we all need good energy,” says Fendi. “It was
an important year, full of question marks. I wanted to approach the
logo in a different way – as a word that has meaning. So I thought
of others that are important to me, that have a good vibe and send
a positive message.
“Today, we are so used to playing with words because we write
more than we talk,” she adds. “We’ve seen this in many collections –
a T-shirt becomes a manifesto – and I like to talk about importantsubjects, but in a light way. At the end of
the day, we are not sociologists; we are
not here to change the world.”F
endi was founded in Rome
in 1925, by Adele and
Edoardo Fendi. They had
five daughters – Paola,
Anna, Franca, Carla and
Alda – who would all come
to work for the label. In 1965, they were
joined by Karl Lagerfeld, the label’s
current creative director. Three decades
later, Anna’s daughter, Silvia Venturini,
took the reins of the women’s accessories
line and the men’s collections.
In 2001, Fendi became part of the
LVMH family, whose stable of fashion
brands includes Louis Vuitton, Dior,
Givenchy and Loewe. The brand
continues to grow and in the most recent annual report, LVMH
singled it out as a high achiever. In 2015, the company’s annual revenue
surpassed €1bn – that’s around $1.5bn a year.
Italian Pietro Beccari has been Fendi’s CEO since 2012, joining after
a six-year stint at Louis Vuitton. We meet him just before the opening
of Fendi’s new Westfield store in Sydney’s CBD. “Australia is
developing strongly,” he tells GQ. “This is a great market to be in, it’s
an enthusiastic one. From being at Louis Vuitton, I knew the potential
of the country and the appreciation it has for beautiful products.”
The store stocks men’s and women’s collections, as well as bags,
accessories and footwear – a decision Beccari says is no accident. “It’s
important that our stores get bigger and bigger to be able to host
different categories, like ready-to-wear,” he says. “We like to present
the entire lifestyle and Fendi is mature enough to do that now.”
Menswear currently sits at around 20 per cent of the brand’s total
turnover – a number Beccari wants to see hit 30 per cent in the next
three years. Proof of Australasia’s importance, the brand recently
announced a menswear collaboration with K-Pop star Taeyang, a
member of hugely popular South Korean boy band Big Bang.
Doesn’t ring a bell? The group has sold 140 million albums,
worldwide, and Taeyang has 7.5 million followers on Instagram.
The capsule collection of jackets, T-shirts, accessories and sneakers
will be available in October.
One of Beccari’s pet projects has been to phase out the more
affordable, somewhat cliché, ‘ ’ monogram print bags, and refocus
on the brand’s luxury roots. “Maybe one day you will see it back,” he
says. “In the runway show you’d have seen the logo coming back, in
a sophisticated way.”
Indeed, the women’s AW17 show featured a reimagined version of
the brand’s iconic monogram-print bag, rendered not in canvas but
with intricate embroidery. Silvia Venturini Fendi is carrying one today.
“For some, a logo is just a logo. But for me, it’s like a contract you
make – it’s a quality mark. And I’m proud of this,” she says, displaying
the bag at her side, “it’s a way of making [the logo] anti-commercial