Fendi takes us back to the 1920s for SS25
Each season, we break down everything you need to know about the new collections in The Fashion Week Cheat Sheet. After speaking to the designers about their inspiration, their hero pieces, the faces on the catwalk and the names on the front row, we present your complete guide to spring/summer 2025.
This year, Fendi is celebrating its centenary – and this is exactly what Kim Jones wanted to remind everyone of with his spring/summer 2025 collection, which paid tribute to the 1920s, and the year 1925 specifically.
Typical Twenties' silhouettes and motifs were seen throughout, albeit given modern makeovers. We saw sheer frocks with dropped waists, flapper dresses covered in fringing and knitted co-ords with boy shorts – these pieces had the flair of 1920s Art Deco glamour, but with a 2025 twist.
The collection too, was an ode to Fendi's history and to the woman who wears it: "As a house passed down through the matriarchal line, Fendi is always aware of women who do rather than just are," the show notes read.
Theme and inspiration
"The foundations of how women dress today and, in many ways, how we think are in the 1920s," Jones explained of his inspiration. "It’s about modernity in style and attitude. 1925 has so many milestone moments. It is the founding year of Fendi, but also the year of the Art Deco exhibition in Paris – The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts – from where the name is taken. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby are also published. There’s modernism in dress, design, decoration and thought. We approached the collection with these things in mind, as an amalgam of epochs, moods and techniques – then and now."
The house milestone also gave Jones and the team the opportunity to look back over Fendi's history and understand what has defined its success.
"Quality is the number one point besides the beauty of design," explains Silvia Venturini Fendi, artistic director of accessories and menswear. "I am always thinking about the connection between fashion and time – I think quality is the defining feature. It is the timeless testament to what has been achieved in our hundred-year history. As the founder of Fendi, it was also my grandmother Adele’s obsession, both personally and professionally: quality."
Hero pieces
Jones presented both couture and ready-to-wear designs in this collection, and some of the embellished sheer dresses really stood out (and are likely to land on a red carpet very soon). Meanwhile, of course, it's Fendi, so the handbags always deserve a mention, particularly the Mamma Baguette; a taller, wider, slouchier and bigger variation of the house's classic, presented in tribute to Adele Fendi, founder of the house and Silvia Venturini Fendi’s grandmother.
Who was there?
Hayley Atwell, Munroe Bergdorf, Shailene Woodley and Raye were among the names to sit on the front row.
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