VERSACE BY FENDI
FENDI BY VERSACE
"Friends, idols, mentors… It's the beauty of togetherness."
- Kim Jones, Artistic Director Fendi Couture and Womenswear
"It's a first in the history of fashion: two designers having a true
creative dialogue that stems from respect and friendship.It led to
us swapping roles to create these two collections."
- Donatella Versace, Chief Creative Officer Versace
This is not a collaboration… The coming
together of Fendi and Versace, two iconic
fashion houses, or more rightly, two iconoclastic
groups of people, has led to this unique
moment in fashion. Both a celebration of Italian
fashion and a to-hell-with-it disruption of the
established order of things, Fendace is Fashion
with a capital F - and a capital V. Together they
stand for Freedom, Fun and Virtuosity.
Crossing the 'party lines' of luxury
conglomerates - inspired purely by friendship
and mutual professional respect - the double
signature of Fendace is a swap, with roles
exchanged. For the first time, Donatella
Versace and Silvia Venturini Fendi have
stepped away from their respective family
houses to be inspired by the other's vision, while
Kim Jones - by now an old hand at inhabiting
and reinventing other peoples' houses - points
the way.
Here, Jones and Venturini-Fendi take on the
design of women's and menswear respectively,
displaying their exceptional vision of Versace
while Versace takes on the design of all,
displaying her inimitable interpretation of
Fendi. With the archives fully opened to both, a
unique cross-fertilisation occurs, with elements
transposed from each house; at heart remains
a deep admiration for the codes and cultures of
both, together with a mutual encouragement
for the designers to be themselves. Needless
to say, the results could only be achieved with
fundamental respect and reciprocal trust.
Ultimately, Fendace is about the need for
sincerity in fashion today rather than strategy.
Inspired by the mid-to-late nineties period of
the storied house, VERSACE BY FENDI
explores an idea of duality, most pointedly
seen in a melding of the Fendi Monogram
with the Versace Greek Key motif. Here,
garments metamorphose, many revealed to be
reversible with hidden codes and the exquisite
craftsmanship of the Fendi atelier on display,
such as in chainmail made leather. Here a
multigenerational approach is embraced
throughout.
FENDI BY VERSACE takes a more punk
rock stance with Donatella Versace declaring
contamination and disruption to be key. Versace
safety pins proliferate, puncturing Fendi signs
and symbols. Chain mail is married with lace
and crystal-encrusted F's in an interpretation of
the Monogram. While silk faille mimics denim
and shearlings are shaved, making the world of
Fendi that little bit more youthfully rebellious.
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