From weathered denim Western shirts to fringe-sliced leather belted skirts, via contrast-undercollar camel coats and politely punkish checked pants, many pieces in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s first cruise collection as Fendi’s creative captain were delivered as duets. These were usually placed on female and male models within the same lookbook frame, often positioned in complementary opposition, inviting reflection on wearer and watcher, subject and object.
Chiuri said from the outset last season that this shared wardrobe would be a cornerstone of her renovation of Fendi. As the regular victim of her husband’s raids on her own closet, and the borrower of many items from his, she considers a mutually worn wardrobe more realistic than radical. You could also speculate, from the way the models broodily regarded each other in their mirrored outfits, that mutual attraction, with a twist of narcissism, was also at play.
The designer characterized this wardrobe, and this collection, as “a modernist idea, with extremely functional garments, where the lines are extremely straight.” We saw the return of Chiuri’s almost Vitruvian silhouette, a high-centered X, in the long-skirted eveningwear and skirted outerwear. Despite some touches of color, she emphasized the restraint of her palette, and seemed more moved by the contrast between the off-white “parchment” tones, a house regular in bags and skins, and the overwhelming blackness visible in this grudgingly lit lookbook shoot.
Through the gloom you could infer that fur had been subject to Fendi’s trademark mastery in a contrast-colored woven fur jacket, leather outerwear whose collars marked an orbit of more fur, and fur-patched bags and shoes. Chiuri said incorporating patches of fur and other materials—mesh, lace, leather—spoke to a sensuality she feels is fundamental at Fendi, yet has often not been fully articulated on its runways. She said: “we should not forget that the company was born from fur, and fur itself already carries an idea of softness, an idea of sensuality.”
In a chat Chiuri noted her interest in the evolution of the working wardrobes, both idealized and real, of the middle-classes as generations pass. Citing Visconti she wondered at the glossiness of the hair and the general adultness of filmed protagonists in the 1970s as compared with today. As well as a wardrobe that is shared, Chiuri is also very much proposing a wardrobe that is adult—a wardrobe with longevity. She added: “The other thing that interests me very much is that each client can, little by little, build their own Fendi wardrobe; not necessarily abandoning pieces from the previous season, but instead allowing them to remain in continuity with the new season, so that they can coexist together.”
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