Designer Kim Jones presented his first Fendi ready to wear women’s collection which celebrated the brand’s history and Italian elegance.
For his first Fendi women show, Jones delved deep into some of the stories most meaningful to the Roman house and he said he also considered the needs and desires of the fashionable women in his inner circle, from Kate Moss and Ronnie Cooke Newhouse to longtime right hand Lucy Beeden, plus all the powerful women at Fendi, headlined by Silvia Venturini Fendi, drawing from their wardrobes for a collection packed with deceptively simple basics.
By keeping the color palette limited to neutrals – tawny and chocolatey browns, creamy whites and beiges, dove greys and olive greens, sophisticated blacks – he was able to really show off what he can bring to womenswear from his background in menswear.
The tailoring is very strong here, as is the outerwear: long tailored coats with feminine swagger, slyly sexy waist-hugging dresses and only the most luxurious of flourishes – long fur fringes and drifting panels of gleaming silk.
Unsurprisingly, Jones drew from the inescapable legacy of Karl Lagerfeld, using the ‘’Karligraphy’’ monogram as accents on tights and silk dresses.
He didn’t shy away from using fur, as conflicted as he is about its use, and there were smatterings of exotic skins, too. Spaghetti-fringed furs in contrasting herringbone, house Pequin striped silk shirting, and the opening loose-sleeved suede bonded mink evoked the period of Fendi’s first great flowering under the stewardship of the founders’ five daughters Paola, Anna, Franca, Carla, and Alda. But mostly he expressed luxury via expert cutting, the ultra-fine fabrics and the sophisticated, subdued colors.
