Friskily young, tweaking trends: Fendi Womenswear Fashion Show SS 23

Sick, although in quite a good way. That’s the only possible response to the double-F hardware-strapped combat pants in silky technical fabric, sporty rib knits, layering in lacquered embroideries, so playful and practical all at once from the Fendi’s Womenswear Fashion Show SS23. It might not be an everyday wear but put the fashion glasses on and you’d instantly see the right number of attractive features to qualify it as ideally avant-garde.

Fendi is a serious Roman fur and leather house of long standing, but Kim Jones recently have been having some fun with it all — paying homage to the past whilst adding the futuristic edge to each fabric. “I am interested in looking at things that Karl has done, and seeing how we can develop them – both visually and technically,” says Jones.

With that, Jones focused on a modernist, earthly toned silhouette, further de-cloyed up with the hints of popping green, vibrant pink and blue that ran throughout the collection. It made enough of the statement to carry the collection, but, as always, the real news-making content was the shape of the Peekaboo bags with chained straps for the very first time. The statement bags were reimagined in a miniature Fendi First bags, draped in finer chains, and easily passable as pieces of jewellery. Well, a Fendi bag is a piece jewellery, classy and making a statement with the logo (first introduced in 2000) that was used to anchor the collection in the past, but re-imagined for today.

Much of the collection was cut in barely-dyed but beautifully embroidered layers of technical organza and nylon jersey. “At FENDI, I am constantly thinking about practicality as well as luxury,” says Jones. “Adding heavy hardware to something very soft both gives it real functionality and makes it interesting.”

The silhouettes, mostly neutral, were cut with narrow flying panels, textured with what looked at a glance like worn-through or dust-spattered fabrics and slouchy edges. Of course, it wasn't that at all. Sleek satin grounded by elevated tennis shoes or rubber platforms formed the constant forward approach. Somewhere in designing this collection, Jones arrived at a dynamic balance between confronting the current mood and creating a modern proposition for that problematic word ‘luxury’. But Fendi lovers will savor the fact that these Fendi versions are, in one sense, originals.

Experience and technical expertise count here. Jones, after all, has navigated well and knows how to calibrate a response.