For FENDI’s Fall/Winter 2022 Haute Couture show, Artistic Director of Couture and Womenswear, Kim Jones, wanted to go on a journey. “This season, I wanted to step away from Rome, or at least I wanted to place Rome in a global context,” said Jones. “In this collection, we are looking at fragments of different cities, namely Kyoto, Paris and Rome,” he said.
Jones and the team of FENDI couture craftsman used Kyoto as the tip-off for the collection. Eighteenth-century kimono fabrics were taken as textiles of the past to be applied to designs of the present. For patterns, Jones opted for a centuries-old hand-painted technique called Kata Yuzen, which he commissioned by local Kyoto artisans. Traditional silk panels were then sliced and reconstructed into floor-grazing gowns.
The collection was also carefully constructed with balance in mind. Jones sought grounding points between East and West, masculine and feminine, nature and machinery as well as past and future. The dresses painted with Kata Yuzen for example were also constructed with sparkling crystal cages made to call the iconic architecture of Paris to mind.
Italian influence could be found woven throughout the collection’s leather and fur work, while masculine touches were applied to the tailoring and structure of specialty calf pieces. And the woman who wears the pieces will find delights in the collection from the inside out as Jones and his team used luxurious Japanese fabrics to line the collection’s suits and dress underpinnings.
While the holistic inspiration might have been global, silvery sequin and pink chiffon dresses borrowed from swatches commissioned but never used by Lagerfeld, bringing the collection right back home.
FENDI’s Fall/Winter Haute Couture Collection is About the Journey Not the Destination
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