Along with stylists Charlotte Stockdale and Katie Lyall, who had worked alongside Lagerfeld, Venturini instilled the brand’s collections with a powerful multi-faceted femininity that felt entirely right: diverse, body-positive and age-embracing fashion made by women, for women. On 23 September, her final solo bow on the women’s Fendi runway before the arrival of Kim Jones – its new artistic director for womenswear as of next season – illustrated the dance between female and male roles so unique to the Fendi family and its business.
For the first time, Venturini was able to design the men’s collection (of which she’s been in charge since the year 2000) alongside the women’s collection, merging the genetics of the two into one co-ed show. “I conceived the collections together in the same moment. There are many boys’ looks that are worn by girls and vice versa,” Venturini says on a video call from Milan. “It’s been a real pleasure. I liked the energy, working with separate teams at the same time.” In 1946, 20 years after founding Fendi, Venturini’s grandparents Adele and Edoardo brought on their five daughters to steer the ship. When they hired Lagerfeld in 1965, he became a lone male amongst women. “Fendi has always been many women and one man. We will have the same formula again,” Venturini notes, referring to Jones’s arrival.
Enclosed with the invitation for this season’s show was a linen envelope with pictures of her mother Anna, Venturini herself, her daughters, her son-in-law and her grandchildren wearing the new collection: fashion’s strongest matriarchy on display. With more than 20 members of the matriarchal Fendi clan gathered during lockdown on their compound in Rome, Venturini spent the period thinking about family and the symbolic value of clothes – and cloths – within it.
“Sometimes I see my daughter dressed in a dress that was mine when I was her age. It’s so nice to see something you’ve loved being loved by someone you love. And also, to see that the dress is still beautiful and relevant, and still has the same focus it had when you were wearing it yourself,” she says. “Passing down clothes is a way of passing down memories and values with time.”
Inspired by the linens traditionally handed down between generations at Italian weddings, she chose this fabric to express the importance of permanence and family values in fashion today. “It’s the most ancient fabric. Egyptian mummies are still wrapped in linen.” It clothed a co-ed wardrobe that felt like a first for Fendi, historically defined by somewhat different directions for its women’s and men’s collections. At Venturini’s female hand, the values of the Fendi matriarchy manifested in a dialogue between women’s and menswear and the roles represented by each. Here, the female voice was louder. It was great. “You know, women are very hard to silence. But you have to find the men who want to listen to them, not the men who want to be macho men,” Venturini says.
“The woman stays the same: strong and independent,” she explains, referring to the direction she first set in February’s show, “but doesn’t refuse to be portrayed close to a man. It’s very natural.” If she’s talking about herself, she knows what she’s talking about. Venturini began frequenting the Fendi studio during Lagerfeld’s visits to Rome when she was in her early teens. When she was 31, he asked her to join his design team. Four years on, she single-handedly created the massively successful Fendi Baguette, birthing the age of the It-bag. After infusing Fendi with her a newfound female perspective over the past year, Venturini says she has prepared the house for a new era. “This is the intro to a new chapter. I’m ready to jump into something new. It’s going to be very interesting. Kim is a friend. I’m happy.”
“Sometimes I see my daughter dressed in a dress that was mine when I was her age. It’s so nice to see something you’ve loved being loved by someone you love. And also, to see that the dress is still beautiful and relevant, and still has the same focus it had when you were wearing it yourself,” she says. “Passing down clothes is a way of passing down memories and values with time.”
Inspired by the linens traditionally handed down between generations at Italian weddings, she chose this fabric to express the importance of permanence and family values in fashion today. “It’s the most ancient fabric. Egyptian mummies are still wrapped in linen.” It clothed a co-ed wardrobe that felt like a first for Fendi, historically defined by somewhat different directions for its women’s and men’s collections. At Venturini’s female hand, the values of the Fendi matriarchy manifested in a dialogue between women’s and menswear and the roles represented by each. Here, the female voice was louder. It was great. “You know, women are very hard to silence. But you have to find the men who want to listen to them, not the men who want to be macho men,” Venturini says.
“The woman stays the same: strong and independent,” she explains, referring to the direction she first set in February’s show, “but doesn’t refuse to be portrayed close to a man. It’s very natural.” If she’s talking about herself, she knows what she’s talking about. Venturini began frequenting the Fendi studio during Lagerfeld’s visits to Rome when she was in her early teens. When she was 31, he asked her to join his design team. Four years on, she single-handedly created the massively successful Fendi Baguette, birthing the age of the It-bag. After infusing Fendi with her a newfound female perspective over the past year, Venturini says she has prepared the house for a new era. “This is the intro to a new chapter. I’m ready to jump into something new. It’s going to be very interesting. Kim is a friend. I’m happy.”
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