Fendi FW24: Nonchalance between London and Rome

Kim Jones, the artistic director of couture and womenswear, is slowly but surely finding his way withwomen's clothing. Beginning with the last collection, he's added deconstruction to his camel-colored mini shorts and printed silk tunics, changed the entire color palette – and these changes have restructured the style of his women's collections, rebuilding the whole ensemble and making it relevant.

This work has continued and advanced in Fendi FW24. Kim Jones talks about one of his inspirations for this collection: “I was looking at 1984 in the Fendi archives. The sketches reminded me of London during that period: the Blitz Kids, the New Romantics, the adoption of workwear, aristocratic style, Japanese style...” Everything he mentioned is easily visible in Fendi FW24: layered loose coats, belted and reminiscent of warm dark winter kimonos; Victorian jackets cinched at the waist, with a high closed collar and wide flat shoulders made of wool gabardine, with straight trousers, an a-line skirt made of thick polished leather; turtleneck sweaters wrapped around shoulders; plaid fabric in dusky hues.

Another source of this inspiration turns out to be completely the opposite. “It was a point when British subcultures and styles became global and absorbed global influences. Yet still with a British elegance in ease and not giving a damn what anybody else thinks, something that chimes with Roman style. Fendi has a background in utility. And the way the Fendi family dresses, it’s really with an eye on that. I remember when I first met Silvia Venturini Fendi, she was wearing a very chic utilitarian suit – almost a Safari suit. That fundamentally shaped my view of what Fendi is: it is how a woman dresses that has something substantial to do. And she can have fun while doing it,” continues Mr. Jones. And this seems even more interesting and less obvious: how do Rome and London connect in this updated Kim Jones approach? Obviously, Rome сomes to mind when you see the flowing organza looks with a print depicting marble heads and statues of Madonnas (one, it seems, is literally Michelangelo’s famous Pieta from San Pietro cathedral), beaded circles on other silk looks; thin turtlenecks with imitation of layers, crisp white shirts of a Roman segnora, large chains, and impeccable Italian leather used for jackets and coats. What binds both of these parts into the most coherent and integrated ensemble of Jones' career at Fendi? First of all, the colors: this time he put together an perfect range of dark gray, khaki, dark sea green, burgundy, deep brown, beetroot, and taupe. And all of this is stitched and connected by  sparks of bright Fendi yellow.

The result was a rather complex, but certainly beautiful and sophisticated collection, in which all this multi-layering and complexity of design no longer seem so forced, but strike one as interesting and having obvious design potential that can be developed and deployed in different directions. It seems that soon this height will be cleared: Kim Jones as a women's clothing designer will be able to become as effortless, inventive, and free as he is as a men's clothing designer.

Text: Elena Stafyeva