Fendi Men’s Spring 2024
Entering the Fendi factory in Capannuccia, a 30-minute drive outside Florence, one could expect to find bioengineers busy behind the glass-walled rooms.
Its high-tech and almost sci-fi look is only interrupted by the verdant hills all around and the little lush courtyards dotting the space.
More from WWD
Silvia Venturini Fendi Highlights Artisanship, Menswear Freedom With Tuscan Show
Nicholas Galitzine Named Fendi's First Global Menswear Ambassador
Loro Piana Names Giuseppe Sperandio Image, Communication Director
As guests stepped into the facility, craftsmen were laser-cutting patterns for a Peekaboo bag or assembling a Tiffany x Fendi Baguette. They would all join artistic director of menswear and accessories Silvia Venturini Fendi for her final stroll down the catwalk, a moment that alone made the ride in the countryside worth it.
In a preview a few days before the show, Venturini Fendi said she wanted to celebrate work — most notably Fendi’s handiwork.
Brown boxes scattered around the space read “Made in Fendi,” a tongue-in-cheek catchphrase that has to do with branding, but also with the luxury house’s commitment to craft, the facility being one of the most evident examples.
The venue suggested the theme: cool and chic factory boys wearing utilitarian garb, as in distressed denim separates, pocketed workwear jackets crafted from thick cotton canvas and elongated striped shirts layered under pocketed pinafores as short as miniskirts.
The designer reworked the apron silhouette, turning it into halterneck shirts that added a dash of unexpected sensuality. “There is a sense of great freedom [in menswear], which is amazing. I think that has been one of the most interesting things that happened in the past decade,” Venturini Fendi said.
Tailoring was superb in all its understated and youthful ease, defined by drop-shouldered blazers and fluid pants — just right for the workwear-loving generation.
Almost every look was anchored in sleek patent leather clogs with rubberized soles. And bags, plenty of them, including a Peekaboo design crafted from waranshi paper as part of a collaboration between the house, architect Kengo Kuma and a Japanese craftswoman.
Only three guys weren’t sporting any handbag and one of them actually ditched it in favor of a leather apron with room for at least 15 tools.
There is a lot of talk, especially in Italy’s fashion supply chain circles, about the modern artisans and preserving their know-how.
Well, Venturini Fendi’s workers — whether walking the runway or in the factory’s labs — were some of the chicest around.
Launch Gallery: Fendi Men’s Spring 2024
Best of WWD
