Fendi fetes its century in style

Fendi feted its century of existence in style Wednesday with a great and often beguiling collection designed by Silvia Fendi, a granddaughter of the brand’s founders.

Though launched and still based in Rome, the show was staged in Milan, in Fendi’s north Italian headquarters with considerable style.
 
Sarah Jessica Parker, Hailee Steinfeld, Ashley Park and Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu sat front row, joining Sean Paul who later performed a set inside the soaring south Milan space. Redone in thick pile banquettes to host this collection, which smartly riffed on some Fendi classics even as it broke new ground.

Founded in 1925 by Adele and Edoardo Fendi as a fur and leather shop, which quickly became a destination for sophisticated shoppers. All the way to the post-war Dolce Vita era when international movie stars shooting in Rome’s Cinecittà film studios began discovering the brand.
 
A second generation of Fendi five sisters, each with 20%, owned and skillfully developed the brand, hiring Karl Lagerfeld to guide its fashion creation in 1965.

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Fendi is most celebrated for its remarkable exotic fur, though Silvia turned a new page with a series of great shearling coats and stoles made to look like fox, mink and sable, but were not.
 
The cast appearing out of a towering double door – made to resemble the entrance to the brand’s historic boutique and salon on Via Borgognona. The first look, a flawless flared coat worn as a dress – with funnel collar and waist cinched with a gold belt. Silvia also showed some marvelous tubular leather coats and beautiful double face cashmere redingotes.
 
Worn by a cast of young hopefuls and famed veterans: Eva Herzigova in an accordion pleat silk cocktail; Edie Campbell in a strass-encrusted tweed cocoon coat; or Natasha Poly in a dazzling metallic skirt and cashmere cardigan. Before Silvia sent the atelier into overdrive with chevron and zig zag mink coats that reeked rich.
 
Today, Fendi is part of the luxury empire of LVMH, though its creation is still family driven by the third generation Silvia.
 
“I didn’t want to spend too much time dwelling on the physical archives. For me, Fendi 100 is more about my personal memories – real or imagined – of what Fendi was and what Fendi means today,” explained Silvia.

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While the fourth generation Delfina Delettrez Fendi dreamed up the jewelry for this show – fur-like textures, from snake chain collars to chandelier ‘fountain’ earrings. With sterling silver obelisk pendants and FF ball chain necklaces for men in a co-ed show.  Delfina’s two seven-year-old twins Dardo and Tarzio even kicked off the action by opening the huge doors, a fifth generation playing a charming role.
 
The pair dressed in replicas of an equestrian look originally designed by Karl. Talk about blending the past with the present.