Fendi
“Everything is based on circles,” Karl Lagerfeld said of his fluid, edgily feminine Fendi show. “So everything has a round shape,” added Silvia Venturini Fendi of the accessories.
Those accessories also share the unusual palette of the runway collection, the aqueous blues and greens, with shots of fluorescent orange or metallic blue, that Lagerfeld described as “frozen colors hit with electricity.” That otherworldly feel extends to the Disk purse, with its overlapping satin segments, and the extraordinary new translucent leather the house has developed, pierced to create unexpectedly romantic lace and eyelet designs. The transparent theme also runs through the chunky clouded plastic heels of the new Fendi shoe and into the tactile body jewelry, which includes New Age “rings” molded forms designed to fit snugly in the curve between thumb and forefinger.
Metallics play a strong role for spring. An evening clutch features knotted and plaited silver or bright gold, while pink textured copper is used on almost everything, either for the hardware or as an accent. That pink copper turns up in the collection’s only noncurvaceous piece: the fabulous rectangular purse known as the Juke Box. It’s based on the antique leather case—monogrammed for some Jazz Age aristocrat—that Lagerfeld uses to stow his multiple iPods (a dozen at last count, which translates into around 120,000 tracks, all of which he seems to know where to find). The Juke Box has a discreet opening at the side (to accommodate a head-set cord) and comes in a super-slim version with a decorative hand strap. That’s not to mention the wittily named Compilation, which combines "the roundness of the Disk and the hardness of the Juke Box!" Venturini Fendi explained. Lagerfeld’s passion for the musical mix has obviously infused the entire Fendi studio.
—Hamish Bowles