Fendi presented its Fall/Winter 2022 Couture collection on July 7th.
"This season, we wanted to take a step back from Rome and at least place the city in a global context," said Kim Jones, Artistic Director of Couture and Womenswear. "For this collection, I look at fragments of different cities: Kyoto, Paris, Rome. The fragmentary nature of things recurs throughout the collection: fragments of memory, or impressions of the past, present, and future."
This season, Jones and the artisans at the Fendi atelier in Rome approached the couture collection as a palimpsest: repeated, diaphanous fragments of the past forge the present and seamlessly transition into the future. The couture tradition is humanized and reimagined, bright, radiant, and wearable with a lightness. Gone are the elaborate fabrics, replaced by a softer, more raw feel and a sense of agency.
The starting point is Kyoto, the cultural heart of Japan. It is here that we find remnants of century-old kimono fabrics, which we reconstruct and reinterpret for the collection, creating a foundation for the future. Crafted using the painstaking kata-yuzen technique, which has remained unchanged for hundreds of years, the traditional silk fabrics of Kyoto are thinly cut and reworked into asymmetrical shapes, creating floor-skimming dresses. Inspired by the century-old "Ode to Autumn" fabric design, cascading Japanese maple leaves are used in various forms, culminating in the collection's final tulle gown, where the delicate embroidery is at its most magnificent.
Contrasts between East and West, masculine and feminine, natural and man-made, traditional and modern are woven throughout the fall/winter collection. A flowing, body-hugging kata-yuzen dress blends Kyoto with continents, including a shimmering, undulating crystal cage that echoes the architectural spirit of Paris. A touch of French "Japonism" and gently sculpted Art Deco ornaments are complemented by Italian tailoring in vicuna, leather, and fur. Masculine tailoring is evident in the interior and sometimes exterior construction of the pieces, seen in vicuña suiting and cognac calfskin accessories. The construction of many pieces also conceals a hidden pleasure that only the wearer will appreciate: traditional Japanese fabrics are used as linings and quilting for the inner layers of suits and dresses. A close-cropped mink suit with intarsia demonstrates the unparalleled craftsmanship of the Fendi Fur Atelier. Here, Rope Mountain, a fragment of a traditional Japanese fabric dating back to the 19th century, is abstractly reinterpreted and reborn as a lasting foundation for the collection.
"This season, we wanted to take a step back from Rome and at least place the city in a global context," said Kim Jones, Artistic Director of Couture and Womenswear. "For this collection, I look at fragments of different cities: Kyoto, Paris, Rome. The fragmentary nature of things recurs throughout the collection: fragments of memory, or impressions of the past, present, and future."
This season, Jones and the artisans at the Fendi atelier in Rome approached the couture collection as a palimpsest: repeated, diaphanous fragments of the past forge the present and seamlessly transition into the future. The couture tradition is humanized and reimagined, bright, radiant, and wearable with a lightness. Gone are the elaborate fabrics, replaced by a softer, more raw feel and a sense of agency.
The starting point is Kyoto, the cultural heart of Japan. It is here that we find remnants of century-old kimono fabrics, which we reconstruct and reinterpret for the collection, creating a foundation for the future. Crafted using the painstaking kata-yuzen technique, which has remained unchanged for hundreds of years, the traditional silk fabrics of Kyoto are thinly cut and reworked into asymmetrical shapes, creating floor-skimming dresses. Inspired by the century-old "Ode to Autumn" fabric design, cascading Japanese maple leaves are used in various forms, culminating in the collection's final tulle gown, where the delicate embroidery is at its most magnificent.
Contrasts between East and West, masculine and feminine, natural and man-made, traditional and modern are woven throughout the fall/winter collection. A flowing, body-hugging kata-yuzen dress blends Kyoto with continents, including a shimmering, undulating crystal cage that echoes the architectural spirit of Paris. A touch of French "Japonism" and gently sculpted Art Deco ornaments are complemented by Italian tailoring in vicuna, leather, and fur. Masculine tailoring is evident in the interior and sometimes exterior construction of the pieces, seen in vicuña suiting and cognac calfskin accessories. The construction of many pieces also conceals a hidden pleasure that only the wearer will appreciate: traditional Japanese fabrics are used as linings and quilting for the inner layers of suits and dresses. A close-cropped mink suit with intarsia demonstrates the unparalleled craftsmanship of the Fendi Fur Atelier. Here, Rope Mountain, a fragment of a traditional Japanese fabric dating back to the 19th century, is abstractly reinterpreted and reborn as a lasting foundation for the collection.
