Initial reaction:
The best-dressed academics this side of anywhere, who appear from their modernist scholarly buildings to daydream in the park. Luxury is always more interesting when it's tinged with something from a completely different sphere, and what we got here was exactly that: a kind of geeky luxury, nailed with confidence and a fresh perspective as Fendi closed the penultimate day of Milan on a high note.
Nature and the city:
With shearling sprouting from shoulder seams like grass appearing between cracks in the pavement, and brick-like patterns in mossy and earthy colours, this felt like a collection that was about finding nature in the city. “It was exactly that!” Silvia Venturini Fendi said backstage of her "urban but organic" ideas, where reversible outerwear reflected this duality in leather-lined, sleek suede or shearling that almost looked like mink, with laser-cut stripes running through it.
With her daughter off at university in London, Venturini Fendi has been spending a lot of time in the city. “I wait for her for hours at the park,” she said. “So I was looking at young boys and people and women at my age really enjoying life. Even if you live in a big, big city, which is so futuristic in a way, you reconnect to your roots even in one hour – go out from the office, just lie in the air.”
This lunch hour excursion meant that Venturini Fendi’s reworking of the classic intellectual wardrobe – with its amped-up, chunky corduroys and block insert tweeds – came with shearling apple bag bugs. It was a collection that effortlessly touched on both the intellectual, self-reflective mood and the eco-aware nature themes we’ve been seeing in Milan over the past few days, as designers are questioning the world in terms of our pace of life and the way we have abused nature and become disconnected from it.
For the kids:
Coats with mink hoods featuring spiky fox Mohawks running down the middle and super long, wide scarves with pockets to put your hands in.
The soundtrack to Fendi AW15:
