EMPRESS OF ROME
Even at a Milan Fashion Week rich in drama and spectacle, the Fendi fall/ winter 2020 show was something special. Other designers presented their collections in cavernous auditoria accompanied by dazzling spotlights and a thumping soundtrack; Fendi ushered its guests into an intimate, softly illuminated boudoir furnished with gently curving velvet banquettes and a thick carpet, all in shades of rose. The clothes were tactile, padded and pastel, the silhouettes curvaceous, yet the models who strode the swirling runway exuded power and confidence. Silvia Venturini Fendi’s second solo womenswear collection was an uplifting celebration of femininity and feminism all at once, and it drew rapturous applause.
As it happened, the event was to prove memorable for another reason too: It was among the final few that took place under normal circumstances, before the coronavirus lockdown began and the fashion pack fled Milan.
“Yes, we were one of the last shows to have physical contact,” says Venturini Fendi when we meet (over Zoom) in her office on the sixth
