Fendi Is Eyeing a Collaboration With Marc Jacobs, Sources Say

POWER OF TWO: Could Kim Jones and Marc Jacobs, who worked together for several years at Louis Vuitton, reunite for a design project?

According to market sources, the British and American designers are discussing a collaboration at the Fendi brand, where Jones is artistic director of haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections for women.

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It could be unveiled as soon as one of the international fashion weeks this September, possibly New York, these sources said.

Reached on Tuesday, Fendi had no comment, while a spokesman for Jacobs didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Since arriving at Fendi in September 2020, Jones wasted little time in pursuing collaborations and in September 2021 unveiled a full-scale brand swap with Versace.

During a surprise fashion show at the end of that Milan Fashion Week, Donatella Versace paraded a Fendi collection and Jones a Versace lineup, both for the pre-fall 2022 season and already in stores. Some accessories come emblazoned with “Fendace” — a hybrid of the two Italian luxury brands.

Jones followed up late last year with a collaboration between Fendi and Kim Kardashian’s Skims shapewear that was inspired inspired by a 1979 Fendi collection designed by the late Karl Lagerfeld.

Fendi and Marc Jacobs are both controlled by French luxury giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

Jones is also artistic director of men’s collections at Dior in Paris, where he has collaborated with a wide range of fine artists, including Kaws, Daniel Arsham, Peter Doig and Amoako Boafo, and more recently the designer Eli Russell Linnetz of ERL.

During his acclaimed 16-year tenure at the creative helm of women’s at Louis Vuitton, Jacobs pioneered the concept of the fashion-art runway collaboration, first with Stephen Sprouse and later with several artists including Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince. The bags he designed with Sprouse and Murakami became global phenomena.

Jones was men’s artistic director at Vuitton from 2011 to 2018. In an Instagram post marking his departure, Jones wrote: “I am grateful to @themarcjacobs for giving me the opportunity to be here in the first place!”

Collaborations have proliferated across all levels of the industry — and in some surprising configurations, including among brands within the same luxury group.

Also making headlines last year was a “hacker project” between Gucci and Balenciaga for the spring 2022 season in which creative directors Alessandro Michele and Demna, respectively, created their own logo-bearing takes on each designer brand’s signature motifs. Gucci and Balenciaga are controlled by French group Kering.

SEE ALSO:

The Biggest Fashion Collaborations of 2021

Fashion’s New Race: Design Collaborators

Dior and Kim Jones Are Staging a Show in L.A. on May 19

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