Lady Of The House

In Sydney to launch Fendi’s new store, creative director Silvia venturini Fendi reflects on the family business, feminism, her love of Rome and why she’s so over It bags.

- Clare MaClean

A BAG KEEPS ALL YOUR SECRETS,” Silvia Venturini Fendi says. “If you open the bag of a woman, you can tell so much.” As intrigued as I might be, I’m not quite game enough to ask what’s inside hers. In fact, I don’t remember seeing a bag at all during our interview in Sydney’s Park Hyatt, which is ironic given Fendi, who has been the creative director for accessories of the house that bears her family name since 1994 (she’s also across menswear and childrens wear), is the force behind Fendi’s greatest bag hits, including the Peekaboo, the jour and, most famously, the Baguette. The designer flew into Sydney to celebrate the launch of the brand’s second store in Australia only weeks after showing the house’s A/W 2017 collection alongside Karl Lagerfeld, who looks after its ready-to-wear, in Milan. But it was the women of Rome, where Fendi is based, who captured the pair’s imagination for the new season.

CLARE MACLEAN: Can you tell us a little bit about how Rome influences the brand and the new collection?

SILVIA FENDI: It inspires me a lot because, you know, it’s the place where I live, so of course that affects me. For the collection we were looking at references and thinking about the Silvana Mangano of today. She was an Italian actress who, to me, really embodied the Fendi woman, and is also someone Fendi dressed in the [Luchino] Visconti movies. So there was an idea of a woman with a cinematic attitude walking in the streets of Rome. And, of course, red was a highlight colour of the collection, too.

CM: You moved into the new Fendi headquarters [Rome’s Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana] in 2015. Is the building still a source of inspiration to you?