Fendi stylist Kim Jones opted for lightness, transparency and purity of lines for his Fall-Winter 2022 fashion show

Between Kyoto and Paris

If last January, during Fendi’s spring-summer 2022 couture, Kim Jones had multiplied the effects like halos of smoke, the ecclesiastical references and the vertiginous heels which made the girls waver, this Thursday, still at the Palais Brongniart, the artistic director favors a certain purity. “This season, I wanted to leave Rome,” said Kim Jones, the British stylist for Fendi, in the note for the show, which takes place in a white staging at the Palais Brongniart in Paris. Fendi is a family story and a deep love for his city: Rome. Collection after collection, the Italian house never fails to remind us. However, this season, Kim Jones, artistic director of the women’s lines, is moving away from Italy to take an interest in the cultural riches of two cities: Kyoto and Paris. Starting point for the collection, Kyoto inspired long, close-fitting dresses with a thoughtful drape and prints reminiscent of traditional kimonos.

Between tradition and modernity

It was by analyzing fragments of kimono fabric dating from the 18th century that the designer discovered a manufacturing technique unique in the world, unchanged for several hundred years. Called Kata Yuzen, this method of printing and painting by hand makes it possible to superimpose silk panels assembled asymmetrically. The result: crazy elegance, unparalleled fluidity of movement and an interesting parallel between tradition and modernity. Conversely, Paris breathes a wind of romanticism into this collection. On the occasion of haute couture week, Fendi also unveiled the first high jewelry models of the house designed by the artistic director of jewelry, Delfina Delettrez Fendi. An ode to the heritage of the Roman house, the adornment made of white and yellow diamonds exudes light and optimism, just like the clothes. The inverted FF monogram, designed by Karl Lagerfeld in 1965, emerges in a flash of natural yellow diamonds in each design.