Fendi has been established for a hundred years. To celebrate the brand’s venerable history, Kim Jones delves back into the 1920s, a pivotal decade that sketched out the contours of contemporary fashion. The occasion for a delicate spring-summer 2025 anniversary show at Milan Fashion Week.
“She liked to get as close as possible to beauty. For her, beauty had almost become, since childhood, a goal.” “She”it was Adele Fendi who, in 1925, founded alongside her husband Edoardo, the brand that is celebrating its centenary today. These snippets of conversations between Silvia Venturini Fendi, currently at the head of this dynastic brand and her mother, Anna, mixed with a composition by Max Richter, resonate like the notes of a “Happy birthday.” Fendi is a century old and Kim Jones intends to celebrate this incredible longevity with his September 17 fashion show.
Kicking off Milan Fashion Week, the show, held in a bright and refined box, takes a contemporary look at the era that saw the birth of Fendi. This is not about being backward-looking or nostalgic. Because the 1920s were the bedrock of an incredible modernity, which is still, in many ways, on the agenda. And this visionary momentum serves as the foundation for an anniversary collection with a subtly backward-looking look.
Fendi Spring-Summer 2025 Fashion Show: Insolent Ease
The exhibition that marked the birth of the Art Deco movement in Paris, or the publication of the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsbyemblem of the Roaring Twentiesare among Kim Jones’ references. In fashion, the era saw waistlines lowered by Coco Chanel or Jean Patou and comfort becomes a real requirement. Infused with all these revolutions, the spring-summer 2025 wardrobe displays pure lines and a insolent ease.
The volumes seek the rightness to embellish the bodies without hindering them; the dresses are straight and the accent, graphically placed on the hips. Apart from a few details, like the ornamental lines of the first two silhouettes or their fringes, the stigmata of the period are transformed into increasingly diffuse evocations. It is about honoring “the foundations of how women dress today” in the words of the creative director.
An obvious softness, towards women whose movements are finally taken into consideration by the era, which translates into delicate harmony. The color palette is pastel, garnished with light sky blue or pale tea pink, a tenuous color, as if soothed by the years. Delicacy is also that of the embroiderywhich sprinkle with a finesse that can only be associated with handwork, diaphanous silks and organzas. A know-how accompanied, as always with Fendi whose leatherwork is the specialty, by a variety of soft suede and supple leather Roman Leather. A softness that continues to the end of the arms loaded with bags, like the model Mamma Baguette more flexible than ever. A detour through the 1920s to which to grant the benefit of softness.
