Fendi’s fashion farewell to designer Lagerfeld
MILAN: Italian fashion house Fendi said farewell on Thursday to designer Karl Lagerfeld, presenting his last collection for them in Milan two days after his death.
The packed audience included long-time friends, former colleagues, journalists and fashion specialists who were paying their respects to the “kaiser”, who worked at Fendi for more than five decades.
The company took out full page ads in international newspapers showing him on the terrace of its Rome headquarters under the headline: “Thank you Karl for the most beautiful journey.
“With all our love Your Fendi family.”
The show itself was typically sobre, with transparent, printed dresses in yellow, green and black along with double-breasted blazers over short, pleated skirts, patterned tights and white boots.
Furs and leathers, a Fendi trademark were shiny and ample, some bearing the FF logo designed by Lagerfeld in 1981, with large bows sometimes hung from the waist.
Tones were often neutral, ranging from pale ivory to cognac and terracotta, with occasional splashes of tangerine, aquamarine and brushed copper.
At the end of the collection, which also featured his long, pointed and buttoned-up collars, Silvia Venturini Fendi reminisced about a conversation with the German designer a few days earlier, when all he was interested in was the collection.
It was a tribute to his focused personality, she said, adding: “We are going to miss him terribly.”
Lagerfeld launched Fendi’s ready-to-wear line in 1977 and remained its artistic director until his death on Tuesday.