This spring 2025 Fendi menswear show revealed the first collection of the brand’s 100th anniversary year: in it, Silvia Venturini Fendi transmitted multiple messages about the past, present and future of the house. “I’ve been deep-diving into the archives, and I wanted to talk about codes and symbols,” she said. A new house crest featured four sections on its heraldic shield; three of these contained the Double-F logo designed by Karl Lagerfeld, the earlier vintage Pequin stripe, and a squirrel as reference to something co-founder Edoardo Fendi would observe of his wife (and Silvia’s grandmother) Adele: that she was “as busy as a squirrel.” The last section contained a two-faced image of Janus, the Roman god of transition from what has been to what is to come—and another archive-sourced motif used by Lagerfeld during his many years here. Said Venturini Fendi: “I wanted to design a crest because I think that when you have 100 years of your story you are part of this club, let’s say, of people that have been changing the rules of Italian fashion and building something into what it is today.”
Edging the crest and running through the collection was the robust Selleria stitching adopted by the founding Fendis from Roman saddlery techniques and incorporated into their earliest leather goods. Said stitch was embossed as a check onto a brown leather overcoat, overlaid onto a gently fizzy pastel check, inlaid into denim, or inserted as a jacquard micro pinstripe. Unsurprisingly, it also featured on bags including a zippered Baguette worn across the body and a new version of the design made in a chessboard patchwork of leather offcuts which were inevitably connected by Selleria.
Fendi’s conception of her family house becoming a member of a club inspired her to reference various forms of club affiliation, including a knit Fendi soccer shirt (a nod also to the Fendi luggage used by the Italian national squad during the 1984 Euros), and rugby shirts in oversized Pequin striping. There were club ties and cricket sweaters too. Much of the attire seemed rooted in quite classical 20th century menswear forms—the check was used to fashion almost dad-like golfing blousons—but a progressive subversion was often applied through sensual touches and detailing. In rib knit and suede half-button shirting or superlight henleys, for instance, the buttons traced a line diagonally across to the left armpit rather than straight down as is conventional: “I wanted to liberate the shoulder,” said Fendi.
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