From flashback to fast forward, Silvia Venturini Fendi activates memories playful and profound, celebrating 5 generations and 100 years of the house of FENDI founded in Rome by her grandparents, Edoardo Fendi and Adele Casagrande Fendi, in 1925. “FENDI reminds me of the future,” she says, as the FENDI Women’s and Men’s Fall/Winter 2025-2026 Fashion Show ushers in this centenary year with great fanfare. “I didn’t want to spend too much time dwelling on the physical archives. For me, FENDI 100 is more about my personal memories – real or imagined – of what FENDI was and what FENDI means today.”
The new Spazio FENDI in Milan becomes a mirage: revisiting the historic salons of the FENDI boutique and atelier on Via Borgognona in Rome where the 5 Fendi sisters – Alda, Anna, Carla, Franca and Paola – worked and played. Through its wood-paneled double doors, a world of lush carpets, divans and chandeliers played host to the clients of alta sartoria by day, and the glittering jetset of the Cinecittà at night. Secrets and stories were passed down from generation to generation as the heightened sense of glamour, now synonymous with FENDI, flowed freely.
Born as a purveyor of fine stoles and handbags, the origin story of FENDI is wrought anew by Silvia Venturini Fendi, reflecting on a century of the House as an exercise in figuration. The collection radiates with ideas of FENDI-ness: where irony and humour mingle with sobriety, and sensuality is instilled with a Roman rigour. Clothes become characters, and characters become their clothes, as the Women’s and Men’s collections are intertwined with sartorial traditions and subversive takes on Italian sophistication.
From the opening silhouette, primal textures trick the eye. A flared coat is worn as a dress – its collar high and waist cinched with a fine gold belt. Once reserved only for the most noble furs, here intarsia, honeycomb and Gheronato patchwork techniques are applied to shearlings that resemble fox, mink and sable, yet are not. The conceit continues as the hourglass — a nod to infinity — manifests in satin balza skirts, flounced corolla jackets and a rounded sleeve. Marbled plissé and ribbed knit dresses dissolve into curled lettuce hems, eel and lamb leather patchworks flare in A-line chevron skirts, and raw-cut menswear coats cocoon with a hidden martingale to operatic effect. Throughout, a crescendo of colours incites the shades of Rome at dusk – laurel and forest green, graphite, chocolate and petrol blue – to the blazing hues of its eternal sunsets in cinnamon and terracotta, bubblegum, buttermilk, scarlet and dusty rose.
Considering 100 years of style, the prowess of FENDI tailoring achieves its apex in bracelet-sleeve blazers and stovepipe flares, as boiled wool coats are deconstructed with a prominent satin revers. Trench coats, an ode to Italian power-dressing, are cut large in lambskin or with a scarf collar in plissé taffeta, as men’s cabans appear in powdery shades of compact wool. On women and men, the FENDI shearling stole is layered as a tailored collar over jewel-tone cardigans, precious lingerie dresses or a georgette blouse, proffering the grandeur of a greatcoat or the ease of a shawl. Elsewhere, the leather workmanship of the FENDI ateliers triumphs in a pair of fluted Selleria coats in reversible deerskin and suede, and dazzling Op-Art coats finished not in print, but as plush geometric intarsias.
The allure of Roman evenings continues in games of matte and shine, from satin skirts quilted in waves and duchesse draped as a bishop’s sleeve, to mirror and crystal embroideries scattered over checked bouclé. Chantilly lace plays the battle of the sexes encrusted in a cashmere twinset or a man’s pinstripe chemise, whilst a fringe of tulle and fingernail sequins frames a triptych of evening ensembles in a millefoglie of FENDI workmanships: forever opulent, yet light as air.
The FENDI Fall/Winter 2025-26 Accessories collection is a kaleidoscope of colours and decadence, revisiting House signatures with a retro-futurist panache. A Modernist marvel, the new FENDI Giano is a moon-shaped ‘click-clack’ purse that twists from clutch to shoulder bag in two-tone calfskin finished with the FENDI squirrel emblem and Janus’ portrait on opposite sides. Launched in 2005, the FENDI Spy Bag returns deconstructed with a twisted handle in sorbet tones of shearling, joining the Peekaboo and Baguette as a perpetual House icon. Shearling intarsia, disco sequins and fluted suede techniques re-imagine the FENDI Mamma Baguette and FENDI Peekaboo Soft spectacular yet tactile designs, whilst a dazzling FENDI Baguette takes centrestage in leopard watersnake or mirrored embroideries. For men, the new FENDI Lui soft zipped duffel appears alongside a supple hobo in Cuoio Romano with metal FF logo hardware. Sprinkled throughout, FENDI Maxi Charm characters are crafted in upcycled FENDI fabrics, combining craftsmanship and creative circularity.
On foot, trompe l’oeil boots and peep-toe slippers in satin and eel play with a slimline wedge or a hooked heel finished with a flash of polished metal, whilst men’s desert boots are cut in wild shearling and soft lambskin.
Designed by Delfina Delettrez Fendi, the FENDI Fall/Winter 2025-2026 Jewellery collection shimmers with fur-like textures, from snake chain collars and bracelets en tremblant to chandelier ‘fountain’ earrings, sterling silver obelisk pendants and FF ball chain necklaces for men.
Editor’s Notes:
The FENDI Women’s and Men’s Fall/Winter 2025-2026 fashion show invitation takes the form of an accordion-folded passe partout photo album bound in Selleria stitch Cuoio Romano, featuring a series of photographs from 1964 – 1977. From childhood portraits of Silvia Venturini Fendi to glimpses of Karl Lagerfeld’s first
collection in 1966, the spontaneous curation paints a picture of the beginnings of the gilded age of FENDI.
The FENDI Women’s and Men’s Fall/Winter 2025-26 fashion show is officially inaugurated by Dardo and Tazio, the 7-year-old twin sons of Delfina Delettrez Fendi and Nico Vascellari, who open the wooden doors to reveal the models and begin the show. They each wear a replica of an equestrian ensemble designed by Karl Lagerfeld and worn by a 7-year-old Silvia Venturini Fendi in 1967.
The FENDI Women’s and Men’s Fall/Winter 2025-26 fashion show soundtrack by Michel Gaubert unfolds in sound bites of consequence, from Barry White’s ‘Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up’ (1973) to the strains of Ornella Vanoni, Mina, Patty Pravo and Franco Battiato – legends whose voices and musical styles are writ large in the annals of Italian culture forevermore.
