24th February 2023

FENDI AW23 – Milan Fashion Week

Meg Parrot reviews the new collection from Kim Jones at MFW

When Kim Jones conceived of his new FENDI AW23 collection, he had one eye on history and the other on the future.  His mission was clear – to reinterpret the House’s heritage for a new epoch.  Where better to start, then, than with Delfina Delettrez Fendi, the creative director of jewellery and a member of the fashion family’s fourth generation?  The latest offering relished in her “chic perversity to how she twists” the House’s codes, he said.  The result was a fluent translation of FENDI’s visual language – elegant, graceful, contemporary.

As a trained menswear designer, Jones’ men’s looks brought a new guise to the aesthetic, while feminine silhouettes further redefined the season.  Through exploring the “interpolation of gender archetypes,” the designer was simultaneously dressing the boardroom by day and the exhibition opening by night.

Constructed with precision, the collection penned stories of sensual subtleties.  Sequin-lined mackintosh’s and kilted suiting traded the office for the party, while crotch-skimming fastenings seemed designed to illicit a knowing blush.  A similar logic was applied with the gossamer lace, layered with clean lines on textured fabrics.  Knits sat askew on a bare shoulder or deconstructed to a single limb in nods to subtle punk undertones alongside Delettrez Fendi’s sartorial rebelliousness.

Graphics plucked from the AW96 archives came reborn as colour blocked intarsia dresses.   And, power blue and chocolate brown punctuated the narrative in memory of Jones first seeing Delettrez Fendi at the office.  Her reworked double F logo earrings seen throughout echoed “the very essence of Fendi,” she proclaimed in the show notes.

Thigh-high boots and hints of lingerie added to the long lines with fetish edges that were being drawn.  New handbags from Silvia Venturini Fendi – the shape-shifting Multi and the refined C’mon – brought a technical complexity to Jones’ grand strokes.

Clearly, the FENDI woman isn’t going anywhere.  Although the inspiration may have started with just one, FENDI AW23 will likely be dressing most of them come the winter.

 

To read our review of the Diesel show from MFW, click here

Click here for more information on FENDI AW23

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