Milan Fashion Week

Fendi
Over at Fendi, Karl Lagerfeld set the house’s Roman artisans to work on transparency, resulting in some extraordinary fabrications that only they could produce. Nappa leather was cut to resemble the most delicate of lace, cabochons sewn like beads onto netting, mesh was starched, jute was knotted over gauze like hand-tufted carpet, and they even produced transparent fur, with tufts of mink or Persian lamb suspended on a mesh of silicone and tulle.

All these 'genetically engineered' cloths were then cut into circular shapes (a theme Lagerfeld has been exploring here for a while) creating new volumes, like bell shaped skirts in crinoline. There was a vague hint at historical dress with some lines and the odd resemblance to a tailcoat, but Lagerfeld was definitely on a modernist mission.