A tantalising question: what if the designers behind two of Italian fashion’s biggest brands traded jobs? The hypothetical, it turns out, happened at Milan Fashion Week. Behold: Fendi and Versace, crossing over and swapping designers. Or, as the collection is informally called: Fendace.
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The premise is perhaps this: if exciting, unexpected collaborations between brands are a norm now, what could one up it? Well, how about Donatella Versace designing a Fendi collection, and Kim Jones and Silvia Venturini Fendi designing one for Versace?
That was precisely what happened in this special one-off show, which a press release firmly asserts “is not a collaboration.” Rather, it’s a “coming together” of two iconic fashion houses, along with their iconoclastic superstar designers.
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The mood of the whole thing was rambunctious, and the designers cited a reference to the ’90s cultural heyday of both brands. “Crossing the ‘party lines’ of luxury conglomerates” the show notes continue, the two brands instead exchanged roles with an approach “inspired purely by friendship and mutual professional respect“. And what’s notable is that Venturini Fendi and Versace are both stepping into houses that bear each other’s family names.
As for Kim Jones’ role in all this (besides designing the Versace womenswear, of course) it’s a safe guess to bet that fashion’s greatest collaborator helped point the way. The show itself was split into two sections, starting with Versace designed by Venturini Fendi and Jones, closing with Kate Moss in a barocco coat, then moving into Fendi designed by Donatella Versace.
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The resulting looks were a bodacious mix of greatest hits and signature iconography. The FF monogram of Fendi melding with the Versace Greek key, for example, or Versace oroton chainmail dresses remade in leather courtesy of the Fendi ateliers.
Here, a look at some of the best looks and details from this exciting collection. Can you guess which is Fendi by Versace, and which is Versace by Fendi?
