Fendi is turning 100, just as the stigma of wearing real fur seems to be subsiding.
Charged with creating the fall 2025 collection that kicks off the brand’s centennial year, Silvia Venturini Fendi opted to create many coats that resemble fox, mink and sable — all realized with shearling.
The shawls she draped over cardigans, lingerie dresses and business suits were also made of shearling — stoles being an integral product, alongside handbags, when her grandparents Edoardo Fendi and Adele Casagrande Fendi established the house in Rome.
There were also some zigzag intarsias in mink — a bathrobe style and a blouson — “for the tradition,” Venturini Fendi said, citing a wish to “give options.”
Still, the designer did not stray from opulence, parading what is sure to be one of the most luxurious runway collections of the Milan season, strong on eel skin and leather coats, including a terrific trench; sleek suede shirts; voluptuous and roomy double-face peacoats, and handsome tweeds and checks dappled with crystal and metallic embroideries.
There were also dazzling op-art coats reminiscent of one of the most acclaimed collections of the late Karl Lagerfeld, who masterminded Fendi’s women’s and fur collections for more than 50 years.
Pencil skirts and fit-and-flare silhouettes are trending on runways here, and Venturini Fendi added godets and ruffled hems to hers. Rounded sculptural sleeves and peplums further heightened the ladylike femininity of the display.
Some of the men’s looks, which lacked the women’s oomph, also came with bits of lace and sparkling embroideries. “I like the delicacy also on men, but keeping the structure,” she explained.
Preparing for Wednesday night’s show, Venturini Fendi bypassed the archives and instead flicked through family photos depicting her mother Anna and aunts Paola, Franca, Carla and Alda.
The company’s runway theater at its revamped Via Andrea Solari headquarters was transformed to resemble the historic Fendi boutique and salons on Via Borgognona, where those five sisters worked in its vast carpeted, mirrored rooms.
Beyond those allusions to the past, Venturini Fendi opted to look ahead, and to express what the press notes dubbed “Fendi-ness, where irony and humor mingle with sobriety, and sensuality is instilled with a Roman rigor.”
Venturini Fendi’s seven-year-old twin grandsons Dardo and Tazio opened the wooden salon doors at the head of the runway to release the models. The tots were dressed in identical equestrian outfits originally designed in the late ’60s by Lagerfeld.
Backstage, Venturini Fendi related that the German designer asked her at age 6 to model in the show, which got her hooked on the “adrenaline and energy that fashion can give.”
“I hope I will give the same energy with this collection and make it very Fendi, quintessentially Fendi, whatever it means,” she said.
Venturini Fendi, whose title is artistic director of accessories and menswear collections, seems to know Fendi-ness by heart.
