[ simplicity is the most complex thing that one can invent ]

Peekaboo-k // culture crash, reiterations, evolutions – the Peekaboo becomes a book. Fendi releases a volume tributing the bag designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi in 2008. Three ladies talking about irony, family and the meaning of legacy

SILVIA VENTURINI FENDI When I work on a design that will be applied to manufacturing, simplicity means arriving at the shape and the volume without conceiving any decoration, capturing the form without any tension. The hallmark of the Peekaboo is the frontal panel that leans forward – a downturn that is achieved only with the right equity between the softness of the canvas or leather and the composure of the volume that holds its shape. This downturn is functional: the bag opens all by itself as if to invite the hand of a woman who is looking for what she already knows she will find. The frontal panel also plays an emotional, if you will, human role: it bows, it smiles, it winks at you. Peekaboo is a gameof intimacy and complicity – between a bag and the person who owns it.

DELFINA DELETTREZ FENDI Simplicity also signifies intimacy. The intimacy of a family, of generations of women who may belong to different eras, but embody the same attitude – and this in turn means style.

They are two similar concepts, attitude and style, perhaps even synonymous – but I don't want to get too into definitions. I like that everyone can have their own interpretation of these two concepts, which I often dwell upon. Attitude and style intersect with one another, or rather, they are intrinsic. The Peekaboo codifies a style because it retains its attitude. Complicityand irony – both comprise the simplicity that exists in the relationship between the three of us.

LEONETTA LUCIANO FENDI In an intimate relationship, in an intimate room, in your intimate core, you can allow yourself to be complicit and to joke, to share your vulnerabilities and to tease yourself. Here, where you feel comfortable. Outside, outside of this cocoon, there is a world that spins in the opposite direction. A world where the human and private dimensions seem to be overshadowed by the extreme complacency of constant sharing, of vanity. Fendi is not out there, Fendi remains inside the familiar and intimate envelope to which I feel I belong. Fendi means Family, of a past that is transformed into the Future – all with capital Fs. Fendi is the story of girls who become women, women who become mothers, who remain sisters.

DELFINA We like to be the three of us, but we like even more to be part of a wider ancestry. My grandmother and her sisters, the three of us, my daughter and my sons. Gruppo di famiglia in un interno is a film that has become a reference for Fendi.

The Peekaboo is a bag that you can use indoors, in your house, in your close quarters – where you can leave it open.

If you go out, if you walk down the street, you’ll close it, at least on one side – but when you are at home, when you are with Family, the Peekaboo stays open. It talks to you, it casts a glance your way.

LEONETTA The name Peekaboo comes from the game you played with children: with two hands you cover your eyes, then you take your hands away whilst exclaiming peek-a-boo!, allowing the child to see your wide-eyed expression once again and smile. In its modernity, the Peekaboo is a bag that reminds me of when I was a child – I was twelve years old when my mother first introduced it in 2008. As if it were the anagram of every bag, as if any child who wanted to draw their mom's bag could have drawn the Peekaboo.

SILVIA I wanted to design a bag that spoke of this. A bond, when sincere, is composed of lightness – of a smile. That's why the Peekaboo smiles. This for me was the key – Leonetta said it well – a bag that knows how to tease you a little, but reassures you with an irony that makes you feel a bit of affection.

DELFINA I remember that the models were already parading different editions of the Peekaboo in that first show. As they walked, my mother decided that some girls would walk

Silvia Venturini Fendi

Delfina Delettrez Fendi

Leonetta Luciano Fendi

[ never ephemeral, never noisy – it's irony ]

the runway with their bag open, while others, as would be expected, with their bag closed – and that was the key.

LEONETTA Playing with a child who is surprised and laughs as they see once again the wide-eyed expression of the adult whose face was only a moment ago covered by their hands, is a motion of discovery, of surprise. In its irony, Fendi does not lose a sense of austerity – which, perhaps, is too exaggerated of a word – but if everything is filtered through Fendi's lightness, even seriousness becomes a riddle. The concept of Fun has often been associated with Fendi, either by assonance or Karl Lagerfeld's ideas which brought a touch of irreverence, sometimes sacrilegious, to leisure and fun. Fendi is never ephemeral, never noisy – it's irony. It might be astonishing, yes – but without becoming blatant.

SILVIA In 1997, I launched the Baguette, which had a strong endorsement from

Sarah Jessica Parker and Sex and the City – some say the concept of the It Bag was born out of the success of the Baguette.

It was a big launch, with a loud voice. The first Peekaboo model was introduced in late-2008 and went on the market in the spring of 2009. The last episode of Sex and the City had aired perhaps five years earlier. America, in fact the whole financial world, was experiencing a critical moment. The Peekaboo was not intended as a trend, as a hit – I wanted the Peekaboo to live on through the years, to grow with time, to remain in the collective imagination beyond its market success.

DELFINA The value of the Peekaboo, the attitude and style of this bag, would be told over time. A message, a word of mouth – almost a sigh. This is a word that speaks of the Fendi way – sighing, whispering – as if to say that choosing an accessory, a bag but also a dress, at Fendi is an idea that envelops you, light but persistent, until it belongs to you, telling a little something of your identity.

LEONETTA Today, this concept of whispered is even more current than it was before.

In the fashion industry, we talk about quiet luxury, about objects and garments – rather than accessories and clothes. Away from trends, away from gender differences, away from commercial seasons. We speak of objects and no longer of accessories – to emphasize the value of an article that is no longer appended to something else. A handbag, a jacket, a coat – these objects have a high value. Buy less, buy better. Such high value is no longer produced based solely on the skill of the Italian crasmanship, but on the ability of that crasmanship to become a positive asset within the social fabric – and on the environment, of course.

SILVIA The Spring/Summer 2024 Men's show was presented at our new factory in Capannuccia, Bagno a Ripoli, in the province of

Florence. The manufacturing facility was designed for energy efficiency, for autonomy over resources – achieving LEED Platinum certification. From now on, all of Fendi's bags will be made at this new location – and among them, logically, is the Peekaboo

LEONETTA These topics should be explored by all luxury brands. They are topics that concern the younger generations, including those younger than myself. What interests young people today is an understanding of how luxury can be positive for the world, a world in which they will have to live – and it is upon these considerations that they fall in love and identify themselves with a brand.

DELFINA The world of tomorrow is different from that of thirty years ago, when the key asset in fashion and the whole luxury industry was glam or cool. Today, the Peekaboo is an It Bag, but for reasons opposite to those which made a bag a hit in the early-2000s. Today, an It Bag is a bag that you will keep, that your daughter will use, and that will also continue to be used by your mother. The #MeandMyPeekaboo campaign spoke, with images, of the relationship between mother and daughter, between sisters – of all women with a bond between them. Catherine Zeta Jones and her daughter Carys Douglas, Grace and Jossylin Pen – and more. There was a time when you wanted the trends and hits of a season – today, you almost want the opposite, you avoid what everyone else has, you choose what best sums up your attitude, which I still think, precedes your style.

LEONETTA Those who know how to make these choices are the only true market influencers. The word influencer has been abused. It is true that there are people, both in the real world and in the digital world, who enjoy the esteem of the public and who know how to influence market trends with their choices. These influential people are not the ones with the largest followings. They are those who express consistency and respect. Today, we must talk about communities, not followings or fan bases.

SILVIA This is not the first time I have said it, but I like to repeat it: I try to draw what I like, and what I suppose my daughters will like someday too. This is my center. All around there are the rules of the fashion industry, the evolutions of the market, and the support of the company's sales force that, as an Artistic Director, must have my focus – but first there must be the honesty of my designs, the sincerity of the dream that

I am pursuing, and that revolves around my idea of Family. My daughters are the ones who influence me and are also my strictest judges. With these premises, together we have made more than a thousand variations on the Peekaboo – from those in the rarest leathers to fabrics with the most complex embroideries. We have worked with artists and other talents to develop their own visions, all the while experimenting with our manufacturing capabilities. With this archive, I like to define my family as an extended community.

DELFINA My mother is a talking archive,

I am a walking archive. As a young girl, I would leave school and go to the studio where I could touch and look at the materials, the research of the creative office, the new prototypes.

I had the opportunity to see the whole process with naïve eyes, and evolve into thinking about the pragmatic nature of this work that, beyond fantasy, has an almost obsessive operational counterpart, a precision of calculation.

As I grew up, I focused on jewelry, which I would perhaps say is the sublimation of every manual difficulty. I tried to cultivate my independence, to specify my references without remaining anchored to what I was discovering, transforming my taste and, I hope, my talent into an authorial signature.

SILVIA Style in fashion is also styling – that is, the ability to decode and subvert an idea of dressing, of combinations, of rhythm. This is what I look for in my daughters, and not only in them – but also in the people around me in my daily life. A bag can provoke styling.

The Peekaboo might have a formal, urban context – but I have seen it become the focus of an intellectual street style. I have understood it from a branding and logomania perspective. Delfina knows how to play with darker, black tones; Leonetta chooses more neutral colors, those closer to her skintone. Styling – if well done – is a psychological investigation.

DELFINA As a child, my mother did not dress me in pink. Neither did her mother before her – in a family of women it was a way to prepare us for a world ruled by men. Today, the Peekaboo has also been designed for men. After having my daughter, Emma, I became a mother to twin boys. I studied theater and theatrical costumery. I collect mid-Twentieth-century metal figures and furniture by

Gio Ponti and Carlo Mollino. I am still attracted to Surrealism.

LEONETTA I am ten years younger than Delfina – although I am not sure whether this means that we belong to two different generations. We have the same references – that makes us part of the same pride, which is Fendi and all that the women of this family have built. This is our foundation, on which we are building our existence with different certainties and urgencies. I feel close to people who are worried about the future – and that’s even before having children. A key word for me is transparency. When and if I become a mother, I imagine, this concern of mine will only increase – because, in the end, it is precisely this concern for others and for each other, the first form of love. Both within and outside of a family.