In Kim Jones’s tenure as artistic director at Fendi, he has shown a knack for blending the eccentricity of his native Britain with the heritage of the Italian house. For spring 2025, the metaphorical curtain went up on a soundtrack of the brand’s artistic director of accessories and menswear, Silvia Venturini Fendi, and her mother, Anna Fendi, musing in Italian about Adele Fendi, the label’s co-founder and a major inspiration for this collection.
Jones had the Roaring Twenties on the brain this season. Fendi was, of course, founded in 1925, but it was also a cultural watershed: the year that Paris played host to the iconic exhibit that would define Art Deco and when both Mrs. Dalloway and The Great Gatsby were published. “The foundations of how women dress today and, in many ways, how we think, are in the 1920s,” the designer said in his show notes. “It’s about modernity in style and attitude. There’s modernism in dress, design, decoration and thought. We approached the collection with these things in mind, as an amalgam of epochs, moods and techniques—then and now.”
With Raye and Normani sitting front row, Jones unveiled sheer flapper dresses with Art Deco motifs, dropped-waist silhouettes and fringed hemlines. Daywear was represented by relaxed shirtdresses, robe coats, handmade embroideries, and embellished knitwear, all in a neutral palette.
Layering was a focus, as were artful juxtapositions, like sturdy boots, made with Red Wing, that provided a contrast to wispy, transparent looks. The accessories were a standout as usual: bags that ranged from the extra-oversized Mamma Baguette to minuscule purses. The artfully mismatched earrings and modernist necklaces came courtesy of Fendi’s artistic director of jewelry, Delfina Delettrez Fendi.
And the event ended in dramatic fashion, capping off day one of Milan Fashion Week: to the strains of orchestral music, the lavender cube installation at the center of the show space opened up to reveal a panoramic view of the entire cast.
Fendi Spring/Summer 2025
Véronique Hyland is ELLE’s Fashion Features Director and the author of the book Dress Code, which was selected as one of The New Yorker's Best Books of the Year. Her writing has previously appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, W, New York magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and Condé Nast Traveler.
