Become a tourist in your own city. Who has not experienced this concept in this particular year? Who has not rediscovered their own city, deprived of leaving the country due to a global pandemic, or even forced to wander a radius of ten kilometers around their home? Silvia Venturini Fendi, artistic director of Fendi's men's universe, was no exception. Her own city is Rome. And from the windows of her office, at the top of the Palazzo della Civilta italiana, the emblematic headquarters of the Italian brand, she enjoys a breathtaking view of the Eternal City, emptied of its hordes of visitors for more than a year.
“I like to look out my window.
I love this incredible perspective on the city.
I almost want to talk about the world, as the panorama is clear and exceptional,
confides the designer, joined by Zoom a few days before the broadcast of her filmed show.
Especially since at this time when travel is difficult, you have to find inspiration there you are.
It is therefore the Roman sky, its special light, its changing colors that have nourished the Fendi man's wardrobe for the summer of 2022.
Fendi spring-summer 2022 silhouette Fendi
The models walk the corridors of the Palazzo, a monument of neoclassical architecture, nicknamed the square Colosseum, crossing the succession of arches (260 in total on 8 levels) that characterize this perfect cube designed by architects Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto Lapadula and Mario Romano , at the request of Mussolini. The sun at its zenith and a cloudless sky illuminate this fluid, ample collection, cut in airy materials - linen, silk, and cashmere "
as light as a scarf
" in which the Ponentino rushes. This sea breeze from "
ponente
»(The west in Italian) that the Romans know well since it blows almost every day, even the hottest. Suits - sometimes composed of a daring boxy jacket, cut short on the navel, cropped top style, but also more casual outfits for these next months of idleness, shorts with cargo pockets, liquettes and windbreakers printed with aerial views and of stylized maps of the city soaked in an essentially pastel chromatic range.
"I prefer to say off-whites by the color
, ”Corrects Ms. Venturini Fendi.
The silhouettes are linked, pale blue, lavender, butter yellow, absinthe green in solid colors or inlay of mink taking up the topographic patterns while, behind, the day fades, revealing one of these wonderful sunsets including the ancient city has the secret.
With their fingertips, these slender-haired boys stroll around rigid tote bags, the masculine version of the Peekaboo, sport Baguette microphones around their necks - another of the house's it-bags, slung over the shoulder with camera bags with double F buckles. feet, monks' sandals and neo-futurist sneakers.
So many accessories that should seduce the youngest without difficulty.
Fendi spring-summer 2022 silhouette Fendi
At nightfall, while the building built for the Universal Exhibition of 1942 is lit up with a thousand pastel fires (inevitably), the appearance grows dark. The same topographic designs of the jackets and parkas seem this time to be moiré. Nine minutes of a hypnotic clip that ends in a nocturnal apotheosis. Chaining wide shots with an unprecedented vision of Rome in the background, ranging from the seven hills in the Apennines to the Mediterranean Sea, turning without warning the foot of his camera, multiplying the slow motion, the close-ups on an earring or a bag, the director Nico Vascarelli, accompanied by the electronic music of the composer Alessandro Cortini, brilliantly stages this bright summer wardrobe. "
As a fashion designer, it's another job, but it also allows you to better control the image, convey the exact message of the collection
, she concedes all the same.
Now we have a much better handle on the medium. Working with Nico and Alessandro is getting easier and easier
(both were already at the helm of the video for the fall-winter 2021-2022 collection, Editor's note)
. Even remotely since you have to work like that from now on.
"