Fendi Fall/Winter 2023/2024 collection

‘It all started with Delfina,’ said Kim Jones of his latest Fendi collection, in reference to Delfina Delettrez Fendi, a fourth-generation scion of the Fendi family who is also the house’s jewellery artistic director (she has also run her own eponymous jewellery brand based in Rome since 2007).
‘There’s a chicness but a perversity to the way she twists Fendi, which is what I love,’ Jones elucidated, noting that this juxtaposition provided the starting point of the collection, which balanced elegance and classicism with moments of subversion.
Much of this was done through a melding of menswear and womenswear tropes, an ‘interpolation of gendered archetypes; the disturbance of ladylike sophistication’, as the notes described. As such, feminine elements – diaphanous lingerie-inspired or bias-cut dresses, the glimmering lining of a coat adorned with sequins – met a sense of utilitarianism in silhouettes inspired by workwear, uniforms and aprons. Knitwear, much of it ribbed and spanning cardigans and ankle-length dresses, was draped around the body, while riffs on tailoring – one particular style added caped sleeves to a traditional men’s waistcoat – played with the idea of deconstruction. ‘It’s deconstructed, but luxurious.
There’s a little nod to punk, and my admiration for DIY, but moved on towards something chic,’ said Jones.
Of her part in the collection Delettrez Fendi adorned models’ ears with double-F lock jewellery. ‘I wanted to explore the purity of the double F, locking on the ear,’ she said. ‘Like the collection, it goes to the very essence of Fendi.’