FENDI honours an important milestone in its style history with a visionary collection steeped in Italian glamour
By The Time Place Magazine
FENDI ushers in its 100th anniversary with a Fall/Winter 2025–2026 collection that takes inspiration from its rich heritage
Celebrating five generations and 100 years of style, the Italian house sets the stage for its Fall/Winter 2025–2026 Women’s and Men’s show with a special invite: an accordion-folded passe partout photo album, bound in Cuoio Romano and stitched in FENDI’s iconic Selleria style. Inside, a visual diary unfolds snapshots spanning 1964 to 1977, featuring everything from Silvia Venturini Fendi’s childhood portraits to rare glimpses of Karl Lagerfeld’s debut collection in 1966.
With a show steeped in anticipation, FENDI understood the importance of anchoring the moment in its storied legacy. So, it came as no surprise that the honour of opening the runway fell to none other than Dardo and Tazio—the seven-year-old twin sons of Delfina Delettrez Fendi and Nico Vascellari—who parted the grand wooden doors in matching equestrian ensembles, replicas of an outfit once worn by a young Silvia Venturini Fendi in 1967.
Renowned as a pioneer of fine stoles and handbags, FENDI receives a fresh jolt through Silvia Venturini Fendi’s lens of visual expression. Echoing the sentiment, the new collection blurs the lines between menswear and womenswear, intertwining them deeply as it reaches into traditional tailoring while delivering a fresh and unexpected twist.
FENDI Fall/Winter 2025
From the very first look, the collection teases the eye with artful deception. A flared coat is reimagined as a dress, cinched at the waist with a fine gold belt and finished with a high, almost regal collar. At a glance, it evokes the richness of fox, mink, or sable—but upon closer inspection, it’s revealed to be meticulously crafted shearling. Through intarsia, honeycomb, and Gheronato patchwork techniques once reserved for only the most precious furs, FENDI blurs the line between illusion and craftsmanship.
The visual play deepens as the hourglass form—a subtle symbol of infinity—emerges across the collection, shaping sculptural satin balza skirts, voluminous corolla jackets, and sleeves with softly rounded edges. There’s movement in every detail: marbled plissé and ribbed knit dresses unravel into delicate lettuce hems, while chevron skirts, cut from eel and lamb leather patchworks, ripple with texture. Even the menswear-inspired coats are transformed, their raw cuts softened into cocooning silhouettes by a concealed martingale at the back, giving the pieces a dramatic, almost operatic weight.
A rich crescendo of palettes in the collection mirror Rome at dusk: laurel, forest green, graphite, chocolate, and petrol blue give way to the fiery romance of the city’s sunsets, painted in cinnamon, terracotta, bubble gum, buttermilk, scarlet, and dusty rose.
FENDI Lui bag
FENDI’s tailoring reaches its pinnacle this season with sharp bracelet-sleeve blazers and elongated stovepipe trousers. Boiled wool coats are now reimagined with a deconstructed elegance, featuring wide satin lapels that catch the light. The classic trench coat is given a bold Italian twist—cut oversized in sleek lambskin or softened with a plissé taffeta scarf collar—while men’s cabans arrive in chalky pastel hues of compact wool, offering a clean yet commanding silhouette.
The most coveted handbags also received a fresh makeover. Leading the line-up is the FENDI Giano—a sculptural, moon-shaped “click-clack” purse that effortlessly transforms from a clutch to a shoulder bag. Rendered in sleek two-tone calfskin, it’s detailed with the FENDI squirrel emblem on one side and the face of Janus on the other, nodding to the brand’s duality of heritage and innovation.
FENDI Spy Bag Small Mink Chevron
Making a bold return, the iconic FENDI Spy Bag—first launched in 2005—is deconstructed and revived with twisted shearling handles in dreamy sorbet tones. The Mamma Baguette and Peekaboo Soft are newly imagined with playful yet elevated details: shearling intarsia, disco sequins, and fluted suede, while a standout Baguette steals the spotlight in opulent leopard water snake or reflective mirrored embroidery.
Describing the momentous 100 year milestone, Silvia Venturini Fendi draws inspiration from her own story, her grandparents Edoardo Fendi and Adele Casagrande Fendi, who founded the house of FENDI, and the memories that shaped her, “FENDI reminds me of the future. 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.”
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