autum winter 23

Artistic director Kim Jones dedicated his autumn/winter 2023 Fendi collection to a muse: Delfina Delettrez Fendi, a fourth generation member of the family who serves as the house’s creative director for jewellry. Anders Christian Madsen shares five things to know about the collection.

The show set featured a tunnel of lights
Photo: Getty

There was something celestial about the tunnel of laser-like lights Kim Jones projected through Fendi’s mile-long runway room in Milan this season. The house’s Roman relationship between the ancient and the futuristic is an ongoing treat for Jones, a sci-fi fan who revels in analysing and interpreting this instinctive culture of the Fendi family. “Delfina is a muse for me,” he said in a preview, referring to Delfina Delettrez Fendi, who also serves as creative director of jewellery at the house. Once again, he dedicated the collection to her wardrobe. And as his models arrived through the illuminated tunnel – to the opening theme from Twin Peaks – they felt like his Roman sci-fi goddesses.
Kim Jones dedicated the collection to Delfina Delettrez Fendi
Photo: Getty
Jones described Delettrez’s look as a combination between chicness and perversity, a pairing he expressed in twisted classics – literally and figuratively – like knitwear, blazers and pleated skirts. If they had a certain sex appeal, it was amplified by plenty of strict leather pieces, from little dresses to lace-up boots and kilts. “It’s looking at little twisted things that are kind of perverse,” Jones said, gesturing at a trouser with a buckle strapped across its crotch. Asked how he practically approaches the adaptation of the heiress’s clothes, Jones said a visit to her private wardrobe is on the agenda. But so far, “She comes in with stuff, I just steal it.”
The collection drew on details from Fendi’s haute couture
Photo: Getty
Jones imbued his collection with elements from his haute couture: an everyday mac lined in not-so-everyday sequins, or shirting morphed with lace camisoles that nodded to his January show. “It’s really clear Fendi codes and that’s what it’s about. It’s capturing that elegant, chic, sophisticated Fendi woman,” he said. “I’m thinking about the future and looking at the things that work for us, which are tailoring, knitwear and dresses. It’s taking all those elements and putting them into a collection.” Sometimes he code-switched those components, like in dresses constructed in very light tailoring fabrics that contributed to an overall sartorial atmosphere throughout the collection.

Jones took inspiration from a 1996 Karl Lagerfeld dress

Photo: Getty

In May, the Metropolitan Museum in New York will unveil its Karl Lagerfeld spectacular. But while Jones is involved in proceedings, he said his approach to Fendi is becoming more and more family-focused: “The next three collections, there’s not really any Karl in them. It’s there but it’s ever-present. You have to think about the Fendi family. They are the people who really count in the end.” This time, only one archival Lagerfeld dress inspired the collection: a knitted column dress from 1996 with a single stripe down the side. “I thought it was nice to have that line,” Jones explained.
There were two new bags
Photo: Getty
The collection introduced two new bags designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi: a multipurpose bag named, well, Multi, and the handbag C’Mon. “I think what is really nice is the movement of the bag, that it can be two things in one. That duality is very Fendi, as is the idea of something which appears simple but, in reality, is very complex,” she said of the former. As for the latter: “The idea was to create pieces that were very pure in order to match the sophistication of the collection.”

Alberta Ferretti’s autumn/winter 2023 collection introduced a cleaner, more modern and less romantic version of the Ferretti woman, says Anders Christian Madsen at Milan Fashion Week. Below, five things to know about the collection.

The collection was a new look for Alberta Ferretti
Photo: Getty

Mona Tougaard opened the Alberta Ferretti show in a floor-length tailored grey bustier dress styled with sheer black opera gloves. She was dressed to the nines yet entirely stripped down: no fuss, no embellishment, just glamour – in its purest form. The look heralded a collection that introduced a cleaner, more modern and less romantic version of the Ferretti woman, which didn’t just suit her but snapped her into a mentality that felt ever so 2023.
It came with a change of show venue

“The silhouette is more modern: clean, long and closer to the body. It’s simple but the detail is very special. There’s more tailoring. It’s very sartorial,” Ferretti said backstage before the show. It unfolded in considered surroundings: a nondescript conference centre some 20 minutes by car from Milan’s city centre, which felt very un-Ferretti but also like a blank canvas; a fresh page for a new start, complete with a seductive electro soundtrack with a sultry voice.
It was just as intricate as before
Photo: Getty
Maintained in an elongated silhouette, Ferretti’s updated take on her own creative genetics manifested in sumptuous but consistently restrained textures – shearling, velvet, various forms of appliqué – that looked simpler than they have in the past, but demanded the same levels of savoir-faire synonymous with her brand. “This is not print,” she said, pointing at a cloudy red dress. “This is all applicated velvet embroidery on chiffon.”
It was all about texture
Photo: Getty
The purified colour palette that defined the show – dark greys, scarlet, black and silver – allowed Ferretti to really amplify her textures. She did so in metallics clashed with velvet, in felt confronted with pattern, and rich textures like soft and sculptural shearling, intricate lace, and tonal black embroideries that embellished jackets in opulent beads and paillettes without ever entering over-the-top territory.
Ferretti said it was about focus
Photo: Getty
“It’s super important at this particular moment to have a very precise image and message,” Ferretti said, asked what had brought on her change in direction. “You can’t be vague. With images appearing everywhere around us, I have to be very concentrated on communicating who I am – my DNA – through a very sharp silhouette.” It made for a wardrobe that transcended age groups, and a collection that imprinted itself on your retina.
Originally published in Vogue.co.uk