FENDI Peekaboo Shearling Interlace Capsule

For Autumn/Winter 2023, the Peekaboo bag, true FENDI icon, is the protagonist of a contemporary capsule; Peekaboo ISeeU Medium and Small are here reimagined with the signature interlace workmanship, evolved from the classic leather strips to shearling. A timeless colour palette of neutrals is spiced up by delicate touches of dusty tones for the bicolour versions, matching white with taupe, a warm brandy colour and taupe and dark brown with light blue, while a brighter shade of pink dresses a ton sur ton interlace. The Peekaboo ISeeU Petite versions follow the same colour palette, but instead feature a plain shearling quadrant. Complementing the bags, matching shearling straps enhance the full look of the Peekaboo, while Nano Peekaboo charms and a golden chain strap can be mixed and matched to accessorize the bags.

The distinctive interlace workmanship is a masterpiece of hand-made leather craft combined with FENDI’s unrivalled savoir-faire in shearling. Fully crafted by expert artisans, shearling strips are first cut in shape and then meticulously hand-waved into the drilled leather panels, forming a beautiful effect between a pattern and an embroidery.

FENDI artisans are masters of transforming materials such as shearling and fur into lightweight intricacies, disguising them and treating them as leather or fabric. Both quadrants of the Peekaboo bag are fully interlaced, and the same workmanship also serves a functional purpose as it is used as a lace-up piping on the sides to assemble the bag.

The creation process of a Peekaboo interlace is long and requires meticulous precision. Artisans search for the perfect spot on the shearling to cut out the quadrant, avoiding every little flaw. Subsequently, shearling is drilled with the holes that will then be used to connect the strips that tie the various parts of the bag together, as well as the ones that will be used to decorate the panels. A perfectly identical paper pattern is overlapped over the pelt as a guide to make the holes, one by one, with the use of a leather hole punch cutter. Each bag is then interlaced by hand, starting from the quadrants. The bag is left unlined, showcasing the exquisite interlaced workmanship also on the inside and revealing the double-sided beauty inherent to the Peekaboo bag – a FENDI signature that results in utmost attention to the outside as much as to the inside. The handle of the Peekaboo ISeeU Medium is a miniature masterpiece of a hand-made three strand shearling braid, all refined by hand. The last phase that shapes the Peekaboo is the assembling: the quadrants are hand-stitched to the sides with the shearling strips to close and finish the bag.

The whole process takes around 15 hours of handwork to craft a Peekaboo ISeeU Medium including the hand-drilling of 630 holes, and for each bag are implied around 4,5 metres of shearling and leather. The Small version instead requires 11 hours to be crafted, with 412 holes and more than 3 metres of shearling and leather.

Designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi – FENDI Artistic Director of Accessories and Menswear– since 2008 the Peekaboo has become a hallmark expression of Roman craftsmanship fused with an intimate sense of FENDI womanhood: it embodies sophistication, excellence and, above all, FENDI’s DNA of mastery of materials.