Mood board: Ahead of the show, the brand’s Instagram shared slow motion videos of artisans in the Rome atelier piecing together intarsia flowers from furs, hand-painting leather leaves with glue and hammering the delicate fantasia onto a sheer organza poncho. Staged under the welcome shade of trees, S/S20 riffed on the great outdoors, gardening and get-up-and-go. Life out of the office, out in the open air. Pocket bags were exposed; sheer printed track-pants lay on top of trousers. Leather patches protected baggy denim shorts. High-tops and trainers in canvas and rubber were developed with Moonstar, a Japanese authority in all-weather shoes.
Teamwork: Luca Guadagnino was announced as the guest artist for the S/S20 season – he worked on every element from prints and accessories to the art direction of the staging. Guests sat on garden chairs snaking through the Villa Reale park. Mini hampers contained a ceramic Fendi tea-cup, engraved napkin and pair of mini-bananas. Floral prints on soft cotton tailoring had the sense of brutalist photograms. Overlapping multi-coloured line drawings in the collection were taken from sketches that Guadagnino made on set whilst making Suspiria. The film director is a friend of the house; in 2005 he made a short piece entitled The First Sun to showcase the Men’s S/S 2006 collection and Silvia Venturini Fendi was associate producer and producer of Io Sono L’Amore (2009) and Suspiria (2018) respectively.
Best in show: Suiting had high waist trousers with split flare. Olive, beige and denim dominated. A padded bomber featured fur in-seams. Patchworked furs were worn inside out; their exposed seams created a rustic windowpane check. Knitwear had tiny key holes. The look had a summery graphic quality, which was there in the caged knits and lattice work reminiscent of garden fences and crisp hedgerows. Textures were artisanal: straw, leather and knit were woven through basket bags. Elegant overalls, coats, cargo pants, long polo shirts, vests and suits walked to the sounds of a re-formatted piece by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto using excerpts from his 1999 piano album BTTB (Back To The Basics). It felt good to be outdoors. §
