Extoling practicality and the celebratory, the archetypal and the iconoclastic, lineage and subversion, the FENDI Women’s and Men’s collections for Winter Holiday 2024 look forward to 2025’s centenary and back to FENDI’s history.
Womenswear Collection
“FENDI is always aware of women who do rather than just are. There is a boyish utility and practicality built into our clothing and accessories; these are clothes for being seen and achieving in. We always want an idea of moving and living in our clothes, no matter where they might be worn – either the city or the mountains in this collection. All are approached with an aristocratic insouciance, both Italian and British; an idea of wearing and layering things the way you want and bringing different, wintery moods together. There is an idea of inheritance in this, of cross-generational dressing; here, there is not just one FENDI woman, but generations of FENDI women.” Kim Jones, Artistic Director of Couture and Womenswear.
As a House passed down through the matriarchal line, FENDI is always aware of women who do rather than just are. Utility and practicality are built into the clothing and accessories, stemming from FENDI’s history with luxe outerwear and leather goods. This Winter Holiday collections are no exception, embracing both a traditional and easeful interpretation of sportswear, archetypal men’s garments adapted to women, such as the tuxedo and the polo, and a literal sporting style expressed through sixties skiwear. At the same time, there is still ample room for winter celebratory sparkle in eveningwear and accessories.
Here, the outdoors meets the indoors, countryside and mountainside, with city and salon. Traditional British fabrications and knits such as the specially commissioned FENDI Tartan, – subverted in womenswear in the shape of signature mini-kilts worn over trousers, enveloping, oversized carcoats, punchy blousons and wool tailored day dresses – tailoring checks and twinsets meet a sleek, international style in fluid tailoring, satin slips, Lurex knits and embroidered sequins. All are united under a sumptuous, luxurious yet casual approach to outerwear, to be slung overall. From oversized signature carcoats in check and tartan to artisanal sculptured fur and shearlings, exploring the heights of FENDI’s savoir-faire.
The Accessories
Once more uniting utility with the celebratory, the accessories of the Winter Holiday collection echo the mantra of the wearer making a mark through doing rather than just being seen. At the same time, that doesn’t mean the wearer can’t have fun and glamour in their FENDI accessories while doing so.
From shimmering leather metallics and sparkling crystals to leather-crafted interlace and cosy 3D FF velvet, no matter what the style, the collection bags are united by a casual and easy attitude, largely gained through tactility and practicality in soft construction. Re-presenting classic FENDI styles afresh, to be worn, clasped and grasped by the wearer anew, soft construction gives further meaning to iconic favourites such as the Peekaboo Soft bag while already defining newer offerings such as the Simply FENDI or the revived By The Way Selleria. While always encouraging the many different wearers to express themselves through their choice and in their own gestures of carrying, the Baguette bag appears throughout in a multiplicity of iterations and lends its casual attitude to all, no matter how ornate and sequin-covered it might be.
The shoes of the Winter Holiday collection provide the very foundation for doing – while at the same time still enabling the wearer to have elegance and fun while achieving. Its most startling iteration is in the glossy FENDI FFold calf boots, a streamlined evolution of those from the Autumn/Winter 2024-25 show, in a classic colour choice of black or dark tan. It also appears in a distinct revival of vintage FENDI FFold mules and slingbacks. Opting once again for a multiplicity of more sensible heights and options in this collection, flats, slides, sandals, loafers and mid-heels appeal to different moods and wearers’ attitudes – of course, there is not just one FENDI woman but FENDI women. Nevertheless, there is still a higher yet distinctly comfortable option, in the block-heeled Delfina – that ultimate mix of both a party and a practical shoe.
Menswear Collection
“A boyish attitude runs through this collection – I wanted both that lightness and classicism in these pieces. It is simple, a wardrobe, but it is also a collection that appears when it is time for festivities. That’s why family and food elements figure strongly. There’s a meeting of Scottish and Italian in it, particularly in the tartans and the blousons. I often think of FENDI as a clan, and FENDI Clan is also the title of the men’s collection. There’s a lightness in the charms and something celebratory and fun in the idea of food – the Fendilicious elements. I always think that connection to food is very FENDI, particularly because of the pasta bag charms of the 1980s. For me, it has a feeling of home.” Silvia Venturini Fendi, Artistic Director of Accessories and Menswear.
The Winter Holiday offering for men takes as its starting point the specially commissioned FENDI Tartan, made in conjunction with contemporary tartan design and manufacturing brand Prickly Thistle – Cloth of Identity and manufactured in Scotland. A timeless symbol of pride, honour and identity, tartan is a marker of family and fellowship. For this reason, FENDI Tartan has been officially registered with The Scottish Register of Tartans. With its festive and family connotations, alongside the classicism of such a cloth, a boyish, prep school attitude permeates the tailoring of wool tartan blazers, tailored trousers and casual over-shirts. In contrast, texture and feel reign supreme in workwear and loungewear-inflected silhouettes achieved in velvet corduroy. While FENDI logo technical fabric can be found in puffer jackets, a FENDI varsity logo gives a more literal old-school feel. Yet it is perhaps up to FENDI’s artisanal classics, its sumptuous shearling and shaved fur coats, to ultimately set the seal on outerwear in the collection.
Starting from a legacy of food-inspired bags charms, the new fast-food motifs of Fendilicious provide a fun and festive excursion within the offering with leather patches, inlays and prints seen on FF jacquard Baguette Soft Trunk bag, as well as casual cotton sweats, t-shirts, shirting and exuberant blousons. Meanwhile, gossamer-light Lurex knits provide an alternate celebratory, eveningwear mood alongside twill wool suiting with a scattering of micro-paillettes, like fairy dust
