With Fendi’s centenary approaching, a sense of nostalgia permeates the show dedicated to the Spring/Summer 25 collection, yet the future looks bright. Discreet volumes whisper from the past, such as the wide fabric bomber jacket, the fluid trench coat, and the three-button jackets worn with cropped trousers, soft on the leg. Shaped details reinvent the properties of the garments: poplin sleeves cut at the elbow can be worn short or long, the zippers of the polo shirts go from the neck to the rib, and asymmetric sweaters in silk unbutton along the shoulder to create airy modularity. Paired with pleated shorts, long shirts with silk ties and patch pockets are worn under short summer jackets in tonal combinations of linen, leather, Madras check cotton, and ultra-light suede. Silvia Venturini Fendi sees the brand as a traveling time capsule, reflecting decades and destinations, with Italian craftsmanship as its guiding star: the collection itself is a homage to the universal and sublimated codes of the Maison preceding the first men’s silhouette unveiled in 1990. Today, the cornerstones of the men’s wardrobe transform into pieces of a sartorial puzzle, activating soft expressions of contemporary masculinity through modern reinterpretations. Once emblematic of the international elite, the notions of work and leisure uniforms are deconstructed and rebuilt anew in dusty colors: a mineral, sorbet, and mist palette, ivory, caramel, and milk blend with soft blues and natural indigo, forest green, and black. Between sport and ceremony emerges the idea of the Fendi Club, its emblem proudly displayed like a crest on pocket and button.
“The idea was to create a Fendi Club, like a gentlemen’s club, with a new emblem that we designed using the maison’s early codes, such as the squirrel, the two-headed Roman god Janus, the Pequin stripe, and the FF logo”.
From head to toe, the collection delights in the virtuosity of the Selleria stitch, a technique passed down to the Fendi family by Roman master saddlers in 1925. Enlarged and reduced, it is reinterpreted here as a pinstriped suit in jacquard and embroidered as a tone-on-tone striped FF logo on linen or sumptuous fabrics, applied as a surface on Japanese boro denim, or reduced to a minimal frame on fresh wool outerwear or leather goods.
It’s no surprise that the Selleria stitch also appears on the bags, including a zippered Baguette worn across the body and a new version of the design made in a patchwork checkerboard of leather scraps inevitably linked to the season’s obsession: from the Peekaboo ISeeU Soft and soft diagonal shoppers to the new Baguette Double crossbody bag with zip closure and a patchwork Baguette created from multicolored scraps from Fendi’s ateliers. Festoon stitching details enrich the contrast sneakers Fendi Force along with loafers with technical soles and soft slip-ons in patent leather or embroidered with waxed thread. The concept of the family home as a member of an elite circle inspired Fendi to reference various forms of club affiliation, including a Fendi soccer jersey—also a nod to the Fendi suitcases used by the Italian national team during the 1984 European Championship—and rugby shirts with oversized Pequin stripes. Fraternity ties from Alpha Sigma Phi and cricket sweaters follow. Much of the collection honors the roots of its archive in the classic forms of 20th-century menswear; the check pattern is used in the most traditional golf jackets before progressing to a gradual subversion visible through increasingly sensual touches and details. In ribbed shirts and suede half-button shirts or superlight henleys, the buttons trace a diagonal line toward the left armpit, rather than straight down, as tradition dictates.
“I wanted to design an emblem because I think that when you have 100 years of history, you become part of this club, let’s say, of people who have changed the rules of Italian fashion and built something into what it is today”.
