Cathy Horyn Milan Style Overview: Gucci, Fendi

Fendi could not have a artistic director for the time being, however it has Silvia Venturini Fendi, granddaughter of the founders, and she or he additionally labored aspect by aspect with Karl Lagerfeld for a few years. The home opened in Rome in 1925, promoting luggage, baggage, and fur stoles. It turned a powerhouse below the care of Silvia’s mom, Anna, and her charismatic aunts — Paola, Franca, Carla, Alda — and Lagerfeld entered the image in 1966. Silvia was 6 when, wearing an equestrian costume, she walked in Lagerfeld’s first Fendi present. Nothing in her life, or in style, has been the identical since.

Within the AI age, there are only a few reminders that style homes had been based by households and expanded by folks of imaginative and prescient and, in a way, that’s what Venturini Fendi supplied on Wednesday night time in Milan, on the second day of the Italian fall exhibits, a wealthy but unsentimental instance of the worth of familial ties and insider information.

This was an excellent present. Certainly, it had all of the qualities of Italian exhibits of the previous — scale, confidence, attract. The carpeted room — in Fendi’s Milan headquarters — was huge, with round lighting fixtures lending a modernist glow, a pair of big picket doorways that swung open from the backstage, and a solid that included newer fashions in addition to Yasmin Le Bon, Eva Herzigova, Penelope Tree, and Carolyn Murphy.

But the centenary present was hardly a memory-lane journey. No matter was private to Venturini Fendi, no matter associated to an earlier assortment, was rigorously thought-about and redefined, starting with the opening fur coat worn with an elegant skinny belt. The fur was truly shearling, as had been a lot of the coats and jackets. Lengthy stoles, a reference to the founders, had been performed in mohair or shearling, and normally in a tonal blur to counsel fur. The one precise fur —“for custom,” mentioned Venturini Fendi in an interview — was a mink coat in a zigzag sample.

She touched on one thing neglected lately — that Fendi was at all times prolific. “Which was additionally very linked to the mantra of Karl,” she famous. “He would simply say, ‘No, we now have to maneuver on.’ That’s one thing I discovered from Karl — by no means look again, simply be taught from the previous.” Pinned on a wall of the backstage was a geometrical, multi-hued fur coat from 2000, the so-called Maximalist assortment. It jogged my memory that Lagerfeld beloved German artwork from the early twentieth century, together with posters, and {that a} vivid shade like deep turquoise or yellow might seep right into a Fendi or Lagerfeld assortment. And there it was once more on Wednesday, in a ravishing, virtually teal blue gown in crinkly silk.

Venturini Fendi recalled, “He was flying into Rome sooner or later, and he took Polaroids of the fields within the outskirts of Rome. When he arrived on the studio, he threw a bundle of Polaroids on the desk and mentioned, ‘The following assortment ought to be about that.’” Within the early ’80s, as an experiment, the Fendi ateliers had begun to shave mink, in order that it resembled velvet, and Lagerfeld noticed an identical impact within the fields, together with sample and adjustments of texture and tone.

The brand new assortment had a refreshing class with out trying stuffy, and as a lot as I admired lots of Kim Jones’s garments — he left the corporate final yr — they appeared, in hindsight, studied: trendy, maybe in minimize however with out punch and, above all, that hard-to-pinpoint Roman sense of theater. Venturini Fendi and her staff received that. Among the many inspiring appears to be like had been the thinly belted shearling coats; an elongated darkish wool coat with a barely flared skirt; a belted coat in tan, channel-stitched leather-based; and a belted light-tan shirtdress (worn by Herzigova) in what appeared like papery silk or cotton, and worn with matte golden-tan boots.

LVMH is outwardly in search of a brand new artistic director, however after seeing Fendi’s full-bodied assortment — glamour that strides forward — I puzzled why. I additionally sensed that, with out attempting, she tapped a Roman feeling. And at a time when a lot of style appears to be like timidly homogeneous, that small however telling distinction appears necessary.

Diesel was surprisingly good. And it wasn’t as a result of exuberant set, the work of seven,800 followers all over the world who made graffiti scribblings that had been transferred to the large, cotton-tented backdrop. Reasonably, it was as a result of restraint of Glenn Martens, who did wonders with traditional tweed and houndstooth checks, the stuff of English tailoring. The opening appears to be like in his present had been in darkish wool bonded onto neoprene. However the ones that instantly adopted? They had been product of denim.

“I used to be very proud of this assortment,” mentioned a perspiring Martens backstage. He defined that the picture he and his staff had in thoughts was “Coco Chanel goes to Balmoral and will get fucked on sherry with the queen.” That accounts for the virtually ladylike silhouette (not a phrase one normally associates with Diesel) of a protracted, smart skirt and a fitted higher portion. But most outfits had been an phantasm. Coats had been truly a jacket and a skirt. And there have been tweedy minis hiked surprisingly excessive, and worn over tiny pants, as if somebody had had an excessive amount of booze. The proportions had been jarring, just like the make-up and the fashions’ black or white contact lenses, however what got here throughout was Martens’s intentionality.

Simply as progressive had been attire and puffer coats in a blistered and acid-washed denim houndstooth, and a number of other dropped-waist occasion attire — in matronly English mode — with an in depth, sheer black prime and a flared satin skirt. To me, the very low-rise dishevelled denims — simply clinging to the hips — steered the affect Demna’s final assortment for Balenciaga, as did stiffened “tops” that gave the impression to be not more than crumpled items of papery material caught to the fashions’ fronts. Nonetheless, the gathering, particularly the tweeds and the spunky play of proportions, confirmed nice type from Martens, who can also be taking up Margiela later this yr.

Lucie and Luke Meier ended their seven-year run at Jil Sander with a placing assortment that in its blocky strains and spiky ornament (lengthy, needle-like paillettes in black, white, or pale pink) appeared very German to me, and I imply that fondly.

There was hardly something to not admire within the present, particularly the hefty darkish tailoring (typically with a model of kilt); the constant use of the lengthy palettes; and a protracted, creamy-white silk gown adorned with flat bows. Nearly the whole lot felt like a daring assertion.

Francesco Risso mentioned his Marni was the results of a while he spent with two Nigerian artists.

“We painted collectively for 20 days,” he mentioned, including, “We mentioned, ‘Let’s simply make with out dedication, with none considered the place it’s going.’” The gathering had a lot of that spontaneous high quality, with clashing colours and textures, and lengthy, slinky attire — one of the best appears to be like of all — in 4 or fives totally different materials and tones.

The garments, in a means, had been a continuation of the temper of his spring assortment, although with out its emotional raise.

As all people is aware of, Gucci is once more trying to find a brand new artistic director; Sabato De Sarno left the model earlier this month. The autumn assortment was performed by the studio, in line with a press observe, and it mirrored some traditional Gucci shapes and, oddly, a little bit of Prada’s kind of styling. Above all, although, the tame assortment mirrored why robust artistic administrators matter.