This concept celebrates the primacy of colour: a preoccupation closely tethered to the image of FENDI. The set conceived for Silvia Venturini Fendi’s new collection—a vibrant day-time show—draws on the potency of light, colour and texture: a collective, uplifting moment. The set represents a navigable plane of colour, where an inviting tactility and tone gives form to an undulating, immersive landscape. FENDI’s SS26 elegant flower pattern provided the inspiring genesis for this idea. An image of the vibrant floral design was expanded; distilled and re-formed. This saturation process—a form of digital colour-bleeding—enabled a redrafting of the image: as colour flooded into distinct geometric boundaries, a quilt-like composition emerged. The patchwork quilt—its rich history rooted in intergenerational craft and commemoration—speaks wonderfully to FENDI’s narrative of tradition. Much like the building of a collection, quilts provide a platform for storytelling: reliant on their composite parts to be seen as a legible whole—dependant on others for their story to be complete. These digital quilt-like squared-forms are also reminiscent of up-scaled pixels in their arrangement. Indeed, the pixel—a portmanteau of picture and element which first came into our collective lexicon in the 1960s with the advent of colour television—is indicative of the evolution from the restriction of grayscale. The pixel, therefore, not only represents tone and light, but also, significantly, movement: of process and progress.

It is through these two key points of reference—the history, heritage and tradition of the quilt, and the advent of pixelated forms, of movement on a screen—that the design of this set serves FENDI’s enduring preoccupation with dual narratives: ‘Our aim,’ as Silvia aptly asserts, ‘is to innovate and maintain the Fendi vision while at the same time preserving our unique traditions and craftsmanship—always adding a fun touch.’ This set seeks to evoke this complexity: a daring, novel embrace of history without nostalgic limitation. Through the richly textured colour planes, which continuously rise and fall like softened sound-bars (affording a deliberate lack of spatial distinction between the observers and the observed), the set also subtly evokes Karl Lagerfeld’s enduring capacity to find beauty through distillation: to translate and transpose manifold sources into compelling frames of fashion.

 ‘I have longed to return to this collaboration ever since FENDI so graciously offered their space in Milan to launch my Ford O2IC Concept Car 25 years ago. Then, as now, it was a joyous experience—one which, back in 2000, saw plush FENDI dice playfully offset my vehicle’s sleek interior: a fun nod towards the fur workshop origins of the formidable atelier. The honour felt is one measured through proximity: an association with FENDI’s enduring commitment to craftmanship and innovation. Continually reasserting the value afforded by hand-made works of great quality, FENDI’s enduring philosophy carries a profound resonance with my own practice. This collaboration, furthermore, not only celebrates the beauty of craft, the process of design, the thrill of invention and a commitment to continuity; the partnership also provides a platform to reconcile the pure joy derived from colour: a visual statement acknowledging FENDI’s historic past, emphatic present and vivid future.’ — Marc Newson