Fourth generation in a lineage of the celebrated Italian fashion dynasty, 26-year old jeweller, Delfina Delettrez Fendi likes telling stories through stones. Using a Gothic vocabulary of glittering skulls, poisonous insects and disembodied body parts– rendered in precious and semi-precious gems and more unconventional materials like bone, enamel and resin - she invites the viewer into a macabre alternate universe where nothing is quite what it seems. In the past, she’s collaborated with Humberto Leon and Carol Lim of Kenzo but for SS14, she’s keeping it in the family with the debut of an elegant and whimsical jewellery collaboration for Fendi. Playfully merging her surreal aesthetic with the maison’s grand Roman tradition, she transmogrifies her signature symbol of The Eye into a furry disco monster. 

Taken from the Spring 2014 issue of Dazed:

“I write down my dreams a lot. It’s a way of approaching life like you’re constantly living in a dream, in your own personal universe. I like it when a tiny object can make you detach from reality even for a few seconds. In dreams objects can be re-invented, and I like to imagine that by looking to a piece you can be transported to a fantastic world. 

I set about inventing a woman in my head from a different planet who’s like a cross between a woman and a bird. So it’s a mix between manga and a futuristic cyberwoman. The starting point was the Bag Bugs from last season, but I wanted to add make-up – almost like the disco version, but even more extravagant, with long metallic eyelashes! 

I really wanted to use fur in my first collaboration with Fendi because if you think of the name, the brand, what immediately comes to mind is the fur. It’s something for every season and every day, you know? I liked the idea of using a very primitive and organic kind of material and giving them sort of a very futuristic shape. I love fur as much as I love stones – there is something that brings power when you wear them.”