Fendi and Versace closed out Milan Fashion Week 2022 in exceptional style at Palazzo Versace on Via Gesù on Sunday night with a history-making runway show — Fendace.
Fendace is a pre-spring 2022 pop-up collection that fuses the two heritage Italian brands. Donatella Versace switched places with Kim Jones, Fendi’s women’s wear artistic director, and Silvia Venturini Fendi, Fendi’s men’s wear designer, so the designers could reinterprete the vision of the other’s brand.
“It’s a first in the history of fashion: two designers having a true creative dialogue that stems from respect and friendship,” stated Versace. “It led to us swapping roles to create these two collections.”
The Versace by Fendi collection explored the idea of duality — most pointedly seen in the fusing of the iconic Fendi monogram with Versace’s signature Greek Key motif. The looks were designed to morph and change, with many pieces reversible or concealing hidden codes, with an emphasis on multigenerational design.
The Fendi by Versace collection took on a punk-rock aesthetic, with Donatella focusing on “contamination and disruption”. Versace safety pins embellished Fendi classics in a series that was designed to feel youthfully rebellious.
The show notes on behalf of the two brands explained: “With the archives fully opened to both, a unique cross-fertilisation occurs, with elements transposed from each house; at heart remains a deep admiration for the codes and cultures of both, together with a mutual encouragement for the designers to be themselves. Needless to say, the results could only be achieved with fundamental respect and reciprocal trust. Ultimately, Fendace is about the need for sincerity in fashion today rather than strategy.”
There were also lots of Baguette bags in honour of Silvia Venturini Fendi, who invented the It-bag in the 1990s.
Both houses share a love of Supers, so the show featured some of the most famous models of the past three decades — also a tribute to Gianni who is credited with inventing the Supermodel. Shalom Harlow, Amber Valletta, and Kate Moss walked the Versace by Fendi section while Gigi Hadid and Naomi Campbell closed Fendi by Versace.
View the full collection here and watch the full show in the gallery above.
