Fendi Fall 2025-26 CLOSE UP “100: A Century in Motion”. Story by Eleonora de Gray, Editor-in-Chief of RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo Courtesy: Fendi.

Fendi’s Fall/Winter 2025-2026 collection wasn’t just a runway show—it was a century of history, distilled into a singular, sweeping vision. In a space transformed into the original Fendi atelier, where the five Fendi sisters once sculpted an empire from leather and fur, Silvia Venturini Fendi unraveled time itself. This was not a mere retrospective. This was the past, reimagined in the present, with an unblinking gaze toward the future.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF MEMORY

From the moment the first look emerged, it was clear—this was a collection built not on nostalgia, but on recollection, imagination, and reinvention. At the edge of the runway, towering replicas of the atelier’s original doors framed the scene, a passage between then and now. And stepping through them: Silvia’s grandchildren, Tazio and Dardo, clad in impeccably tailored replicas of the very equestrian outfit she wore at Karl Lagerfeld’s Fendi debut in 1966. Five generations of Fendi, woven into a single instant.

The collection pulsed with this tension—between rigor and fluidity, opulence and irony, precision and sensuality. Fendi has always been a house where dualities collide and coalesce, and here, that dialogue reached its most poetic form.

THE CLOTHES: A FUTURE ROOTED IN HERITAGE

Fendi has never been about looking back. Instead, Silvia conjured the essence of the past and recast it in the present, with a collection that felt both deeply intimate and strikingly modern.

• Outerwear took center stage, with sculpted shearling coats that felt like wearable architecture, their surfaces transformed with delicate Pequin stripes and tonal degrade effects. Mink coats, worked into intricate zigzags, recalled the technical mastery that made Fendi synonymous with fur—yet their execution felt utterly new.
• Collarless coats and cocooning silhouettes whispered of the Fendi matriarchs, yet their sharp banana-shouldered structures spoke of a woman who owns the room she walks into.
• Lace-trimmed, drop-waist gowns hovered between boudoir romance and modern restraint, their silhouettes both nostalgic and unmistakably contemporary.
• Checkerboard separates and quilted leather creations nodded to the brand’s past, but their razor-sharp tailoring suggested something far more future-facing.

And then there were the netted beanies—whisper-thin veils framing the models’ faces. A subtle, reverent homage to Adele Fendi herself, who was rarely seen without netting draped over her chignon. Tonight, those chignons were coiled into the shape of infinity—an emblem of Fendi’s creative continuum, forever renewing itself.

BAGS AND SHOES: A CENTURY IN THE MAKING

No celebration of Fendi would be complete without a moment for its most coveted accessories—and Silvia delivered a masterclass in evolution.

• The Baguette—reimagined yet eternal. Super-sized in buttery shearling, downsized in quilted leather, or trimmed with Pequin stripes, each iteration felt like a bridge between decades.
• The Peekaboo—pared back to its essence. Stripped of excess but saturated with detail, crafted in exotic skins and supple napa, its inner lining revealing whispers of the past.
• A new icon: The Centenario. A structured, top-handle bag introduced for the 100th anniversary, its form echoing the maison’s earliest handbag designs, but executed in luminous, mirror-like leathers that seemed to shift under the runway lights.

And the shoes? A lesson in contrast. Razor-sharp stiletto boots, their heels sculpted into the shape of Fendi’s interlocking ‘F’, counterbalanced by soft, quilted flats that felt like walking on clouds. Strappy sandals wrapped around the ankles like ribbons, a nod to Roman craftsmanship with an edge of modern rebellion.

THE FENDI DOLLS: A STORY IN MINIATURE

Among the grandeur of Fendi’s centennial collection, a whimsical detail stole the spotlight—dolls. Not mere accessories, not trinkets to be dangled from bags, but full-fledged figures, dressed in the very same looks as their life-sized counterparts.

Silvia Venturini Fendi, ever the storyteller, introduced these fashion dolls as a collector’s dream, a love letter to craftsmanship, and a tribute to the house’s century-long legacy of artisanal mastery. They weren’t just dolls; they were mini Fendi muses.

Standing almost as tall as a bag, these knitted companions paraded down the runway in miniature versions of the show’s most exquisite pieces. Some clutched their own tiny Baguettes, others peered through oversized sunglasses, their knitted chignons sculpted to perfection. A few were even seen tucked under the arms of models, as if walking the show alongside them—a surreal, playful nod to Fendi’s ability to balance irony and elegance in equal measure.

The men’s dolls, dressed in their striped mohair knits and tonal mink coats, stood in perfect contrast to the women’s editions, wrapped in quilted leather ensembles or floating in delicate lace-trimmed gowns. The attention to detail was staggering—down to the minute stitches tracing the Pequin stripes, the delicate tulle veils, and even the micro versions of the infinity-twist chignons that framed the real models’ faces.

These weren’t just runway novelties. They were collector’s items in the making, designed to be cherished, to be held, to be remembered. In a year marking 100 years of Fendi, they embodied the house’s core philosophy: luxury is in the details, and the past and future exist in constant dialogue—even in the palm of your hand.

It was a playful, intimate, and deeply sentimental moment, proof that Fendi’s future is as much about storytelling as it is about style. Because what is a century of fashion, if not a century of characters, narratives, and memories—woven, knitted, and sculpted into something timeless?

THE LEGACY CONTINUES

One hundred years ago, Adele and Edoardo Fendi laid the foundation for something that would transcend their own time. Today, Silvia Venturini Fendi reminds us: this legacy is still being written.

Later this year, Fendi will open a dedicated fur atelier in Milan—a statement of intent. The red-spotted dress that closed the show, an intricate feat of technical mastery, stood as a testament to the house’s ability to evolve without losing its soul.

As Silvia herself put it:

“Fendi reminds me of the future. I didn’t want to dwell on the archives—I wanted to explore my own memories, real or imagined, of what Fendi was and what it means today.”

And should Tazio and Dardo find themselves at the helm one day, they will inherit more than a name. They will inherit a vision—a century in motion, always reaching forward.

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