Dual Force

If I look back at pictures when I was a little girl, I was always dressed in black,” reflects Silvia Venturini Fendi of her first fashion memory. “And I remember one day we were at the seaside on holidays—my mother worked, so I was on holidays with my nanny and my sisters—and this lady stopped us and said, ‘Oh, I like those girls, are they orphans? They are always dressed in black.’” Not an unfair question considering that in Italy, where Venturini Fendi was born and raised, wearing black for an extended period of time is a traditional mourning ritual. But this wasn’t the case, and her nanny quickly quashed that theory with her to-the-point response, “No, they’re from fashion.” No further explanation needed.

The granddaughter of Adele and Edoardo Fendi, who founded