Regarding this season’s FENDI, the most talked-about topic is undoubtedly the heavyweight news from September last year: Kim Jones joining the FENDI family to share the workload of the women’s collection with Silvia Venturini Fendi. Kim Jones has always left a deep impression with his menswear designs, but this time, taking on the new challenge of showcasing the unique aesthetics of womenswear, will he once again amaze everyone? Additionally, in today’s “genderless” and non-binary era, how will Silvia Venturini Fendi interpret menswear designs from a woman’s perspective to evoke a different feeling? Moving on to FW21, she first presents FENDI’s menswear collection.
This year marks her 21st year in men’s fashion design at FENDI. Unlike other designers, Silvia Venturini Fendi, who has been involved in fashion since the age of 5, has been learning from her grandparents (the brand’s founders) Edoardo Fendi, Adele Fendi, and her four sisters from childhood to adulthood. After studying in Italy and London, she was arranged by her family to join the FENDI company and intern in all departments, from fashion show management to frontline sales strategies. Therefore, for this only remaining working member of the FENDI family, every season’s development, everything is within her grasp.
This season, before the exhibition, FENDI’s official IG released several short films produced by the well-known Italian visual artist Nico Vascellari, sharing the atmosphere of this season; however, you would never expect that this is a fashion show that combines art punk with Techno. Entitled “What Is Normal Today ft. Siliva,” the presentation, co-produced by Nico Vascellari and another well-known fashion show curator Michel Gaubert, features a mirrored perimeter around the venue, creating a 360-degree mirrored tunnel, with colorful neon light door frames suspended from the ceiling in the middle, the overall layout resembling a psychedelic maze, set against the dreamy music of Italian electronic music genius Not Waving and Silvia Fendi’s voiceover, enhancing the psychedelic atmosphere.
“Playfulness” has become a major design element this season: inside the venue, colorful neon light door frames and mirrored spaces create a tunnel of lights; as for the music background, Nico Vascellari uses Silvia Fendi’s phone recordings to create electronic music with repeated dialogues; as for the clothing, various elegant workwear is redefined through fabrics, cuts, and color combinations.
Throughout the entire series, the clothing blueprint is probably a combination of double-sided workwear and loose outerwear silhouettes, perfectly combining the requirements for functionality and appearance. Belted coats and windbreakers made of materials such as wool, satin, striped fur, and plush, adopt a comfortable hooded style, while the rolled hem of the pajamas combines indoor and outdoor wearing styles.
From casual jackets to pullovers, shirt jackets, and Bermuda shorts, the FW21 collection subtly showcases FENDI’s craftsmanship, with diagonal stitching techniques adding a luxurious comfort to various silk jacquard pieces. The “inside-out” tailoring features deconstructed patchwork, revealing the padded FF logo lining. Knitwear, a winter essential, is reimagined as long johns, cardigan-style scarves, fingerless glove cuffs, and enveloping “sleeve” neck sweaters, all crafted in traditional ribbed and twisted flower knits.
In terms of color matching, bright colors such as floral, orange, magenta, cobalt blue, and bluish-purple primrose colors are used to contrast with the base colors of black, camel, and charcoal black through lining, inlay, and diagonal stitching, creating a vivid contrast of texture and color tones. The appearance of the “Five Color Warriors” towards the end can be said to be the highlight of this season – before the show, you never thought that a set of everyday work clothes could be made in these 5 colors, and in a design that is similar to “pajamas” or “bathrobes”, yet so tasteful and comfortable – Silvia Fendi should be commended again. From this, it can be seen that the name of this exhibition or Silvia Fendi’s opening remarks, “What is Normal Today,” runs through the entire design concept.
Accurate and nuanced translation: Fashion brands collaborating with artists is nothing new these days, and for FENDI or Silvia Fendi, the relationship between the two has never been a clear divide – or even more extreme, cross-border collaboration may not be the most respectful term for FENDI. In the past, when the “Kaiser” was alive, Silvia Fendi occasionally shared that he had always been her long-term partner, and this season, she has brought in artist and performer Noel Fielding, who has dabbled in multiple fields, to collaborate. The abstract patterns seen in the collection are his designs for FENDI’s menswear this season.
Noel Fielding, who is known for his eccentricity, has taken inspiration from the common graffiti art found in the London Underground this season, designing a series of psychedelic artworks. The patterns are based on FENDI’s logo, abstracted and then applied with colorful graffiti art to emphasize the cosmic spirit of this season. Various faces and figures that directly emerge from Fielding’s dreams highlight the bold contours of this collection with a touch of native art’s madness, appearing on wool vests, nylon belted coats, silk shirts, and even grainy calfskin Peekaboo bags, becoming the main theme pattern of the entire FW21. As for another FENDI alphabet pattern designed by Noel Fielding, it is extensively applied to the coat in look 23.
Regarding Noel Fielding’s abstract designs, Silvia Fendi actually personally commented, sharing: “From Noel’s patterns, you can see whatever you want in them, it can be anything.” The reason why this season features fabrics and styles similar to pajamas, Silvia Fendi hopes to emphasize the comfort that clothes provide, as she deeply believes that clothes can create a sense of healing, rather than simply focusing on appearance and function. And Noel Fielding’s designs precisely reflect that when you put on this series of clothing, it can become your unique clothing according to your thoughts, and it can change endlessly over time, even after a year has passed and winter comes, it can still be the clothing you will definitely choose.
資料及圖片來源：Courtesy of FENDI
