Designer Fendi pays homage to the power of female-led fashion

Male designers and their oversized egos have dictated what women wear for much of the last century. But it's the feminine side of the Fendi family that has been in charge throughout their Italian luxury house's 98-year history, and British designer Kim Jones is smart enough to realize that Fendi isn't. about him.< /p>

"Fendi is a multi-generational house run by women, and that's what I love about it," Jones said backstage at the show, which opened the Milan Fashion Week Wednesday.

Silvia Venturini Fendi, whose grandparents Adele and Eduardo founded the house, now designs menswear and accessories; his daughter Delfina takes care of the jewelry. “So with Silvia, Silvia's mother, Delfina, and Delfina's daughter, who will soon be 16, I have the point of view of many women.

The Fendi women are a tribe of "sophisticated working mothers who also enjoy having a good time," Jones said. “They are a really fun family. These are women who like to do things. Women who are constantly evolving, who are interested in novelty. »

This season Jones is focuses on 36-year-old Delfina Delettrez Fendi and her unique gift for bringing a modern look to archival Fendi pieces. "The first day she came into work she was wearing blue and brown, and I found her so beautiful. There's chic but perversity in the way she twists Fendi, that's what I love the toned, cropped 2000 styles that dominated Milan Fashion Week before. skirts with billowing pleats. Coats were the color of café au lait, crafting a brutalist cement gray. A few pieces of scarlet evening wear added drama, like a bold red lip.

In certain moods, Jones can be a fashion showman in the great tradition of Karl Lagerfeld, one of his predecessors at Fendi.For his other work, at Dior Menswear, Jones recently hosted a show at breathtaking in front of the pyramids of Giza. But i It hasn't escaped her notice that the fashion week craze for captivating antics has begun to leave a void where the fashion women want to wear should be. "I wanted this season to be clean, no frills, just clothes," he said.

The late Karl Lagerfeld, who worked at Fendi for over 50 years, will be back in the spotlight in May when an exhibition in his honor opened at the Met Museum in New York. This collection included "a nod to Karl," Jones said, in a vertically striped knit dress that reworked a look from a 1996 Lagerfeld collection.