Milan Fashion Week: 10 Best Looks From Fendi Spring 2017
Sheer fabrics, florals and plenty of stripes
By Harper’s Bazaar Singapore Team - published
Fifty years is a long time. That's a long time by any standards, but Karl Lagerfeld's partnership with the Fendi family, and in the last few decades Silvia Fendi, has outlasted most marriages. The brand celebrated its 90th anniversary with a walk-on-water-wow runway earlier this year in Rome. And for spring, it's back to the business of making ultra luxe clothes with a focused point of view, and throwing in some accessories that will get the young and young at heart excited.
Spring celebrated hyper femininity with a large side of stripes. Railroad stripes were cut into flirty mini shirt dresses and ladylike jackets with exaggerated sleeves. Meanwhile sporty lines were played against silk and brocade, usually in a shade of pink. If you read between the vertical stripes, you might spot a linear "Fendi" worked in subtly.
In the days leading up to the show, Fendi sent out messages like "girly meets avant-garde". Up close, this meant the technical wizardry that the house has always embraced, wether that's pushing the limits of how to use fur or in the small laser cut-outs and delicate floral leather appliqués that detailed scallop-trimmed blouses, bow embroidered negligee-like rompers and tailored jackets with extra flounces.
Lagerfeld and Fendi balanced the lightweight chiffon and pastel silk ready-to-wear—with inflections of baroque and chinoiserie florals—with eye-catching accessories. Stripes continued through the sock-like booties and sandals...the natural evolution of wearing socks with sandals, one guesses. And the bags, each one different from the last except for its boxy shape, offered new ways of personalization. All the straps can be interchanged and the key fobs hit a new heights of humor and charm, from new fur-trimmed letters to furry graphic flowers and any number of adorable monsters that are now a house standard.
But for all the whimsy of the accessories, the clothes were so pretty and grown-up girlish. Filmy dresses were printed with florals and outdoorsy scenes while apron frills, scalloped ruffles and meticulous pleats detailed other looks. And as for those show-stopping coats and jackets, for spring, it's the classic trench, exaggerated and embellished with soft metallic flower embroideries or leather appliqués.
From: Harper's BAZAAR US