All The Right Angles

At a time when the carousel of creative directors is constantly turning, KARL LAGERFELD’S half-century tenure at Fendi is nothing short of remarkable. In an exclusive interview, he shares with Vogue why he works better today, the bold Fendi women, and why the future is always bright.

- Priyanka Khanna

In many ways, that Karl Lagerfeld referenced Giacomo Balla for Fendi’s spring/summer 2018 collection seemed but natural. The legendary designer and the 20th-century artist do, after all, have a great deal in common. Balla, an Italian Futurist, was passionate about art for the future; Lagerfeld has long decried nostalgia, choosing only to look ahead and never live in the past. Balla is known for dynamism in his work, Lagerfeld’s designs are far from static, bringing a freshness every season to decades-old traditions and technique. Balla was all about tactility and appealing to the senses; Lagerfeld, too, loves a play of textures.

To be a futurist in the early 20th century was to be modern, young and disruptive. Boxes that Lagerfeld, even after 53 years at Fendi, successfully ticks off each season. Using Italian futurism and tropical travel as a starting point, Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi brought in elements of graphicism (through cuts, stripes and shapes), transparency and dynamic layering in a look that was still easybreezy summer.

For Lagerfeld, it was an inspiration that he took lightly, riffing on elements and creating an energetic, youthful collection. Vogue asks him to share what he was really thinking.

Futurism and tropical travel. Geometry and transparency. The spring/summer collection was full of contradictions. What was on your mind?

When I start sketching I don’t think about it, I just take inspiration from what is in the air. You know, there is no recipe; it’s done by instinct. And this collection has a mix of inspirations: it’s a game of triangles, shapes and stripes becoming checks. Transparencies, lightness, new cuts—with a touch of Futurism.