Kim Jones’s collection for Fendi Haute Couture may have been the most highly anticipated event of the season. We couldn’t wait to settle-down with our laptop to see what this street style designer would do for his first Haute Couture collection for Fendi. Jones used childhood visits to Charleston Farmhouse as his point of departure. The 16th-century Sussex farmhouse was home to some key players of the 20th century Bloomsbury Group, a mix of writer, artists and philosophers headed-up by Virginia and Leonard Woolfe. This anti-establishment movement rejected the rigid Victorian concept of domesticity and encouraged a gender fluid bohemian existence.
Jones grew-up near Charleston and owns a home in nearby Rodmell. In an interview with Vogue’s Anders Christian Madsen, the designer described the collection as “intensely personal.” Jones didn’t deliver an excessively literal interpretation of how the Bloomsbury gang dressed. He referenced photographs taken of the group’s members and kept to a muted color palette of gray, cream, light green, nude and black.
Actress Demi Moore opened the show in black pants and a low-cut bell sleeve top, looking decades younger than in recent photos. Kate Moss wore a silver gown satin gown with crystal detailing at the bottom that looked like water droplets. “Daphne” the heroine of the “Bridgerton” series would have adored this dress and worn it over and over again. There was a sleek white pantsuit that was a modern- day rendition of the iconic one Bianca Jagger wore to her wedding to Mick. Look ten referenced the Bloomsbury’s love for gardens and gender fluidity. The lame bolero and trouser was paired with a beaded nude shirt with oversize cuffs. Sylvia Fendi’s daughter, Delfina Delettrez, walked the show and also created some interesting earrings and hair accessories that added drama to the collection. The massive chandelier earrings bordered on the surrealistic; they resembled spinal bones dipped in silver.
While the collection was far from “street”, it would have played better as a ready to wear presentation. Perhaps, we would have better appreciated the details that went into the garments had Jones included some glimpses of the creative process in his film. Overall, the clothes lacked the drama successful Haute Couture collections deliver now that they have become go-to sources for entertainers such as Lady Gaga to pull from for big public appearances.
- Vivian Kelly ( @thefashionhistorian )
