Fendi: 100 years with leather. From the early leather goods laboratory opened in Rome in 1925, to the catwalk in Capannuccia, Bagno a Ripoli (Florence) as special guests of Pitti Uomo on June 15th. But, in (almost) one hunder years, artisans have changed. “Today they are also engineers, due to the machines they use. Men and machines working together”, said Silvia Venturini Fendi, artistic director of accessories and collections made by the brand owned by LVMH.
Leather show
The 2024 Summer men’s collection, presented at Fendi Factory, includes a high quantity of leather. The apparel items mix suede, leather and shearling. There are also leather work belts to fit the tools in, as well as a classic tailor’s meter made in leather and a glass-holder. Other than of course, many handbags.
Artisan-engineer
The designer revealed how her grandmother Adele Fendi, before founding the brand in 1925 in Rome, went to Tuscany to learn the art of leather goods from her cousins. “Today manual work and know-how aren’t sufficient, one needs to open the mind, and train it in mathematics, engineering, and make it creative”, said the stylist while discussing the work of artisans in 2023. “The public thinks of artisans as an elderly person doing repetitive work. But today artisans are advanced and engineers, due to their knowledge of the machinery they use”. She explains to MF Fashion: “There is a wonderful relation between older and newer machinery”.
Young workers and sustainability
As already done by CEO Serge Brunschwig during the interview with La Conceria, the stylist also discussed the topic of generational change with Repubblica. “Young workers need to surpass the cliché and embrace these professions. They live too much in the virtual: it’s alienating. I believe at one point we all need to get back to reality and get the hands dirty”. Speaking of sustainability with WWD, the designer noted how the leather articles of the saddlery division (that her grandmother started), are all metal-free. And she says: “I think products should be accompanied by a passport. There will be an increasing number of rules, because people look for transparency and they want to know what they are buying and who made the products”.
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