What is a Fendi-ness, you ask? To Fendi’s menswear and accessories creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi, it is something that courses in her veins, fuelling her radical approaches to menswear. After the Fendi Spring Summer 2025 show, Men’s Folio catches up with the head of design to hear more about her direction for the house at its centenary.
In the hectic aftermath of the Fendi SS25 show, Silvia Venturini Fendi — the mastermind behind it all — stood backstage, attending to questions about her latest collection for the house. Even in her petite frame, the Fendi menswear and accessories creative director, whose veins course with the Fendi DNA through and through, stood taller than any other creative, public relations professional or eager-eyed journalist looking for a savvy soundbite. She had, after all, just presented one of the most important collections for the house — its centennial one — to much fanfare from her audience. Creating something new is already a challenge when there is a century’s worth of newness to live up to. A bigger challenge arises when one has to capitalise on that newness, maintain a reverence for a hundred years of history, and then make it grandly impactful. To Venturini Fendi, a design community veteran, grand impacts are a mere afterthought. Her priority, instead, lies in her defiance of convention. It matters not if these conventions were the same ones that have built her family’s fashion empire to where it is today — the designer toes the line of legacy with an audacity that comes with the wisdom of experience.
In an exclusive interview with Men’s Folio, the creative director goes through the looking glass, reflecting on what’s been before and what’s to come, a hundred years into the inception of Fendi.
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room: Fendi is turning 100!
I think the future often has a strong link with the past. And so I think Fendi, with its 100 years of history behind it, is a perfect brand that looks at its past to write the future.
Speaking of the future, have you ever considered what people would want to wear in the future, maybe 100 years on?
At Fendi, there has always been something new and something old. And for us, that “something old” is always more new than the “something new”.
If we look at the legacy of Fendi and where it been, the house has always had a slight edge by being modern.
You know, fashion doesn’t look at… We are not fortune tellers. We are trained to have a vision that goes the distance. Since we present every six months, we have to be relevant for the moment. But I think that if you look at the evolution of society, society is easy to predict, especially in what the future brings. Maybe it’s because we’re in uncertain times?
What’s new then, for Fendi’s Spring Summer 2025?
The Peekaboo — our iconic bag — is totally new now. We made it new with new proportions, and because we also made it with a new leather, so it’s also soft. I think softness, today, is a very important quality in handbags. Then of course, there’s the new Baguette, a Double Baguette with a zip. It’s very useful because you can now wear it crossbody, which is something new and beautiful in itself.
Does “newness” correspond with beauty in your eyes?
I think today is a time when people really want to go into the essence of things. So instead, I want to have a sense of easiness and simplicity. To me, there’s nothing better than the new beautiful, beautiful shopping bags that are made just of leather. We’ve highlighted the way that they are cut and the quality of the leather, and it’s beautiful because it’s simple. I also like the embroidered shopping bags, because there’s no hardware! So pure and simple.
What makes something truly “Fendi”, and why?
Well, there is a Fendi-ness, which I think is the way you are into your clothes. You wear your clothes with… There’s a certain quality that is very difficult to express in words. I would say there’s an attitude. It’s in the clothes that make you say, “Oh, that’s interesting, what are you wearing?” Which is then when you discover it’s a Fendi piece. I call it the Fendi-ness.
Fendi-ness?
Yes. Fendi-ness.
I guess this “Fendi-ness” is what we may term the defiance in your works, especially in menswear. Have you noticed a difference in men’s perception towards fashion?
I think yes, and it’s really so liberating. You know, for many, many years, there have been very strict codes that were defining a restricted area in fashion for men to move within. I don’t want to be egocentric by saying this, but I think that there has been an acceleration of women designing for men, and that has added to this liberation. And I think I maybe would like to be a part of that kind of movement.
I would like to think you were part of the change as well. Is there a fond memory from your experiences in designing menswear?
For the first show I did by myself… I remember feeling so sick the night before. I was so sick like you cannot imagine. I was feeling so emotional and was full of questions. I will never forget that night.
Is it ever difficult to balance being commercial and having certain creative leeway?
I want to make real clothes. I want to see those clothes walking in the street on real people. Not just on a very beautiful editorial in a magazine.
There must have been ideas that you eventually had to exercise certain restraint in executing, given you’re the head of design!
I do what I like [laughs]. I create collections based on what I would like to wear, or what I would like the people that I like would wear. So there are references in many real people that I admire, and I have a very good team who can have dialogues with me, and not just work.
On the topic of dialogues, would it be too bold to ask about how you have navigated generational gaps in your designs if you even consider it a gap at all?
So I like to confront myself with a different generation. I have a very big family, who are always around. So I like to ask for real advice. You know, when you have, your daughter or your niece who is not afraid of always saying “yes,” but instead “I’m not sure,” I think that’s good. You get to ask yourself these questions too. So I think it’s a dialogue. A dialogue with reality.
Family-wise, Fendi is a very matriarchal house. How does it feel to have a women’s perspective on menswear?
Yes, it’s a matriarchal house, but that’s probably why we like to break boundaries. When you are a woman, you have to work harder than a man. You have to fight for your ideas, which is why I’ve been trained to have an even stronger point of view. But there’s also always been a constant dialogue with men, which has been enriching for both sides.
Has a lot changed since the founding of the house?
Not a lot has changed, but not a lot has stayed the same, either, which is very interesting. I think that the values are always there and will continue to be there, especially at this moment as we approach the centenary. I think we would like to reaffirm those values.
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