Fresh off the tremendous success of this summer’s Fendi couture show in Rome—when Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi made models walk on water across the Trevi Fountain—the pair came back to Milan with another quirkily beautiful ready-to-wear collection. Its makings sound like an unlikely mix: utilitarian stripes and sporty knitted sock booties on the one hand, grand baroque brocades and lingerie silks on the other. But it was all deftly tied together with a result that came through as calm and curiously creative at the same time.
Decade collaging is a thing of the moment, but Karl Lagerfeld is the grand master of that. His way of tossing a salad of references and materials is always aimed at producing an unforeseen combination whose novelty is relevant to modern tastes. That was true again this time, as Lagerfeld ribbon-tied aprons of elaborate gilded fabric over gathered pants; applied leather flower embroidery onto a khaki jacket and a trenchcoat; and segued from a take on this season’s sheer floral-print dress to apricot ’20s-style silk lingerie-like pieces with cut-out butterflies on their bodices. Among all this there were inimitably Lagerfeldian organza blouses with scalloped edges running around the shoulders and sleeves—the sort of thing he has been designing his entire career, reprised with spot-on timing to catch the current exaggerated-sleeve silhouette.
Meanwhile, all this made a great showcase for the all-important Fendi accessories. The striped opening section was an ideal backdrop for a number of little frame bags with a lot of fun on them: chunky whipstitching, brocade flower-decorated guitar-style straps, rosebuds, hand-drawn loopy doodles, and much more. The knitted sock boots also had a lot going on. Some were striped, some were athletic-seeming, and one particular pair was laced-up with scattered satin flower embroidery, a moment that veered into the 18th century—and could only have flown off the sketch pad of Karl Lagerfeld.
