Throughout his three-year tenure at Fendi, Kim Jones has remained steadfastly devoted to a singular muse: Delfina Delettrez Fendi, scion of the house. Prior to this afternoon’s show, Jones enthusiastically reaffirmed this stance, declaring, ‘I will always say that. Because she is just so chic and because of the way she dresses. And when you put it all together, it’s about the idea of function in life.’

Beyond her role as a fourth-generation embodiment of the sophisticated and progressive female spirit associated with the Fendi name, Delfina is intricately woven into Jones’s creative practice as the house’s artistic director of jewelry. During the Milan show, she stood in the audience as Jones meticulously unraveled the threads of this collection. The journey began within the hallowed archives of Fendi’s Rome headquarters, circa 1984. There, something sparked memories of the New Romantics and the Blitz Kids in the UK—figures like ‘Princess Julia,’ ‘Judy Blame,’ and ‘Leigh Bowery,’ whom Jones has long admired. Additionally, the collection nodded to the transformative impact of Japanese designers, from Issey Miyake to Hanae Mori and Yohji Yamamoto, who made waves in Paris. Anchoring it all was the eternal city itself: Rome, whose original Latin language bore the roots of Romance tradition.

This resulted in a collection that artfully layered various historical influences without becoming overwhelmed by them. The Japanese aesthetic left its mark on the impeccably tailored silhouettes and precise shirting. Polka-dot embroideries and hoods subtly echoed Leigh Bowery’s anarchic spirit, maintaining a delicate balance. Meanwhile, Fendi’s Romanesque essence found expression through cleverly integrated classical statuary imagery in the closing section. 

The collection’s sophistication emerged from the fusion of traditional tailoring with Aran knitwear, jersey, mink corduroy, tufted shearling, and stitched leathers and suedes—an understated twist on classicism.

Adding a touch of whimsy, leather fortune tellers and Chupa Chups-sized lollipop holders (perhaps a nod to club culture) adorned the soft versions of the Peekaboo and other bags, sometimes slung around the models’ necks. Notably, two new bags—the midsize satchel named Simply and the larger rounded shopper called the Roll—were meticulously crafted to be soft, yielding, and tactile, assuming the role of hero pieces. In this collection, Kim Jones deftly juxtaposed classical elements with progressive touches, revealing a fresh facet of Fendi’s rich 99-year-old heritage.