The century of the legendary fashion house was fittingly celebrated during a dazzling fashion show for the fall-winter 2025-26 collection. A successful exercise in style hands down, in this case that of Silvia Venturini Fendi, who replaced Kim Jones at the last minute, who left in October. She still supervises the men’s collection, giving this show an even more successful coherence.
“Fendi reminds me of the future.”
In her statement of intent for the fashion show (men and women) for fall-winter 2025-26, organized on February 27 during Milan Fashion Week, Silvia Venturini Fendi clearly conveyed the paradoxical way in which she wanted to celebrate the centenary of the fashion house. Founded in Rome by her grandparents, Adèle and Eduardo, Fendi entered the LVMH fold in 2001.
Silvia Fendi, alone at the helm
Silvia Venturini Fendi, already in charge of menswear and accessories, who has temporarily taken over the reins of women’s artistic direction since the departure of Kim Jones last October, did not, however, wish to dwell on the past in a prosaic way.
“I didn’t want to spend too much time dwelling on the physical archives. For me, Fendi 100 evokes more my personal memories – real or imaginary – of what Fendi was and what Fendi represents today,” she said in her show note.
And to introduce this dual connection to the past, but even more so to the future, Silvia had chosen a strong symbol to start her show: it was opened by representatives of the fifth Fendi generation, her two 7-year-old grandsons, Dardo and Tazio, twins, like Romus and Romulus, the founders of Rome… where the House was born!
Dressed in replicas of the equestrian outfit that Silvia herself had worn in 1966 for the first Fendi fashion show by Karl Lagerfeld, the boys of her daughter Delfina, who herself works in the jewelry division of the company, thus opened the double wooden door of the fashion show. A clear echo of Fendi’s first Roman boutique.
Nostalgia and modernity
Silvia, on the other hand, has always known the House, which when she was young was run by the quintet of the Fendi sisters, her mother and her four aunts, who had taken over from their founding parents. And without literally taking over the House archives, the artistic director drew on her own memory and the decades spent at Fendi to pay tribute to the House.
By way of the invitation – a mini photo album with personal photos from 1964 to 1977 – the audience was warned that the atmosphere would necessarily be a little nostalgic. In addition to the setting of the fashion show – a reproduction of the historic workshop – the soundtrack, transporting us to Italy in the seventies and eighties, also added to this scent of memories.
But it was also a question of the artistic director showing that Fendi is perfectly in tune with its era, with, for example, very contemporary oversized silhouettes, and able to project itself into the future, while knowing how to perpetuate its heritage, made up of historical know-how and best-sellers.
Symbol of this revival: the iconic Baguette bag, designed in 1997 by the same Silvia Venturini Fendi, was one of the stars of the show, but in a modernized and shimmering version, with new skins and other embroideries. The whole thing was embellished with little Fendi dolls reminiscent of those imagined in his time by the late Karl Lagerfeld, who was at the helm of style for some fifty years.
Fur and leather, Fendi’s DNA
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Featured photos: © Courtesy of Fendi
