Fendi’s rigorous craftsmanship
and forward-thinking
approach to design is even
more evident up close.All this, though, was grounded by the cursive IN THE DETAIL
double-F logo stamped on the gallery’s ground
floor. Designed by Lagerfeld in 1981 and dubbed
“Karligraphy”, the traditional insignia was a signpost
inside the spaceship-like setting that this step
forward was, true to form, simultaneously a
celebration of the past—and that feeling extended to
every one of the spectacular show’s 102 looks.
For women, the label’s autumn/winter 2019
collection was on display—the last created by
Lagerfeld for the maison. The ever-inventive
designer passed away just a few days before the range
initially debuted at Milan Fashion Week in February,
but the calf-grazing diaphanous dresses, cleverly
applied laser-cut leather, and scissor-sharp tailoring
nipped at the waist and accented by pagoda
shoulders, had all been touched by his hands.
“Until the very last minute he was involved in
it, even from the hospital. His force, his creative
force [was] really within [him] until the very last
moment of his life,” Venturini
Fendi recounts. Reflecting
on the designer’s infectious
energy, she muses: “With
Karl, we would never [feel]
the weight of the work because
everything was still always
very exciting in a way. Through
his sense of humour and
curiosity, we always felt that
every time, every collection
was like the first.”
It’s easy to be enthralled by
the designer’s words as she shares her firsthand
experiences of Lagerfeld—the creative visionary,
technical innovator and icon of fashion who was
notoriously dedicated to his work, discreet in his
private life and reportedly left his fortune to his
cat (a fluffy Birman named Choupette). Venturini
Fendi, then, was one of a few who publicly inhabited
his close-knit circle. “I remember when I first met
him, I was, I think, five years old, and I always
felt welcome to sit around the table where he
was working,” she says, highlighting Lagerfeld’s
admirable ability to engage with anyone on any
subject—even a wide-eyed child.
Homing in on their 50-year narrative, Venturini
Fendi tapped Lagerfeld to collaborate with her on
the menswear collection that formed the other half
of the label’s co-gender runway show (this range had
also previously debuted at Milan Men’s Fashion
Week in January). Initially nervous to ask him to
be a guest artist for the range, she needn’t have
worried. “He immediately said yes. And the day
after, I received the sketch on my mobile,” she says.
That starting-point sketch illustrated a jacket with a
classic lapel on one side and shawl collar on the other
and expanded into an interplay of contrasting
elements that the designers explored together. But
with Lagerfeld providing a well of inspiration for
Venturini Fendi all her life, he quickly turned from
collaborator to muse.
The designer distilled Lagerfeld’s distinct
style stages, from his Comme des Garçons and
Matsuda-favoured Japanese period, to his shift
to the slim-fitting suits by Hedi Slimane for Dior
Homme. In reference to his idiosyncratic creative
process (“Everybody was always interested in
how I could get along so well with him for
so many years—we all know he is a complex
personality”), she even turned a medley of
handwritten notes, photos and sketches into the
“Karl collage”—a print that decorated silk shirts,
shearling jackets and the label’s first foray into the
Baguette bag for men.
Designed as separate entities,
when presented together in
Shanghai, the uniformity of the
co-designed men’s and Lagerfeld’s
women’s collections was a clear
visual expression of the designers’
creative symbiosis. Between
Lagerfeld’s oversized bow ties and
mannish tailoring, and Venturini
Fendi’s two-tone teddy-bear
toppers and chic trench coats, it
also reinforced the fluid rather
than fixed rhetoric that the label has quietly sung in
its own way for years, because at Fendi, now and
then, ‘him and her’ always coexist in the very
foundations of the brand. “Bringing these two
collections together, it’s basically what we were
doing—a collaboration of a man and a woman,” says
the Fendi doyenne, who also dressed female models
in men’s looks for the occasion—though it was
impossible to pick which ones.
Perhaps most poignant of all was the fact that
scattered among the collections were 15 new looks
Venturini Fendi had designed for the milestone
event—10 for women and five for men—that
married elements of the two parts. With no
successor for Lagerfeld yet announced, it was
these that marked the most significant evolution
in Fendi’s history; the culmination of a lifetime of
mentorship and a changing of the guard as
Venturini Fendi heads up the future of the fashion
house with 54 years of Lagerfeld’s creative legacy
by her side. ■PAGODA SHOULDER LINELASER-CUT LEATHERASYMMETRICAL COLLARMEN’S BAGUETTE BAG“Through his
sense of humourand curiosity, we
always felt that
every time, everycol le c t io n wa s
like the first”