FENDI
THE MOOD Kim Jones set the scene with gigantic Fendi bags lining the runway. They were an homage to Rome—where the Fendi story started and where the company’s headquarters is still based today—and the city’s ancient monuments. THE LOOKS For his latest, Jones served up practical and elegant twists on the masculine and the feminine—mannish tailoring fabrics combined with sinuous silks and knits. The collection’s off-kilter palette—tangerines and marigolds with chocolates and sky-blues—was informed by Karl Lagerfeld’s spring/summer 1999 collection for the House. THE EXTRAS From the Peekaboo to the Baguette to the First, Silvia Venturini Fendi sent out a greatest-hits equivalent of the brand’s bags. She also introduced the Flip, a tote that transforms into a clutch. Meanwhile, her daughter, Delfina Delettrez Fendi, transposed the brand’s signature Selleria saddle-stitching onto jewellery.
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
The showspace was dominated by the works of the sculptor and textile artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, which looked delicate to the touch, but were monumental in scale. They also had a dark, haunting quality that echoed the spirit of McQueen. In her final collection for the brand, Sarah Burton explored the full spectrum of femininity, from softness to strength. Tailoring was powerful, as usual, but there was also a fragility suggested by the fraying red threads attached to it. A pair of deeply ruffled dresses were as evocative of flowers as they were of the female anatomy. There was a new version of the curved Armadillo heel that McQueen himself showed in his final runway collection, though less vertiginous and more practical in Burton’s
