Fendi’s New Clan
The Italian fashion house has tapped the Kardashians for its latest campaign for the Peekaboo bag.
MILAN — The Kardashians are keeping up with Fendi. The Rome-based luxury company is launching the second chapter of its #MeandMyPeekaboo campaign, with images and a video of Kris Jenner, her daughter Kim Kardashian and her granddaughter North West. To complete the family circle, music is care of son-in-law Kanye West — each short film features the artist’s “Love Lockdown” as a soundtrack.
“We wanted to show the most genuine and authentic aspect that is behind the people we collaborate with, and the complicity between the women of the family,” said chief executive officer Serge Brunschwig. “We have chosen to collaborate with family-related members that have been relevant in general, as well as known as a family, from the more controversial ones, who more and more express a courageous point of view and they have a vision, to more unexpected and unexplored ones. You know that at Fendi we love to dare and surprise.”
The images will be released on Fendi’s social networks starting July 11. To mark the 10th anniversary of the brand’s staple Peekaboo bags, the company in April launched the #MeandMyPeekaboo campaign with a video and images fronted by Silvia Venturini Fendi, its creative director for accessories, men’s wear and kids’ wear, and her daughters Delfina Delettrez Fendi and Leonetta Luciano Fendi. The video hinged on the relationship that Venturini Fendi and her daughters have with the Peekaboo bag, and with one another.
“The idea was to expand the concept of family, as it’s part of our history, and we wanted other families of women,” said Venturini Fendi. “In the case of the Kardashians, they are all three of them very strong women, with strong personalities. It’s an iconic family, who is known for its appearance, but we wanted to bring more of an intimate side to the table.”
The designer emphasized her friendship with Kanye West since his internship at Fendi, and who is “present with his music; there is a link between the family and the collaboration with us.” Venturini Fendi said the Kardashians “well represent the concept I wanted to express. They are less controlled here; you can see they let loose, with emotions surfacing. You can tell by the way they look at one another, it’s clearly intimate.”
She explained that the communication concept stemmed from “simply observing” her family and in the unique quality of the Peekaboo. “The bag passes the test of time — my daughters like it and my granddaughter asked me to hold one for her. It’s beyond fashion. I like things when they become timeless.”
After the initial images with Venturini Fendi and her daughters Delfina and Leonetta, the company “wanted to explore the family relationships among women from different countries and different from one another, also to show how such values are universal,” said Brunschwig. “The concept of family could include many different aspects and we wanted to explore all of them, finding the most intimate and private side as the Peekaboo bag is also about the very special relationship between the bag and the woman carrying it. It allows complicity and empathy.”
In a sort of family album, for the first time Kardashian, her mother and her daughter posed for Fendi in Los Angeles, offering a new point of view on their relationship.
Brunschwig praised the Kardashians for being “great professionals.” Seeking authenticity, Fendi succeeded in showing the family behind the paparazzi shots. “For once they have stopped playing a part,” he noted, saying that “magic happened, they showed a relaxed and very natural attitude.”
The second installment of the campaign includes other characters: Sisters Jessica and Krystal Jung, both singers and actresses, who were photographed in
Seoul; Hong Kong-based mother and daughter Kam Fung and music performer Joey Yung; musician Dou Jiayuan captured with her mother, photographer Gao Yuan, in Beijing, as well as Ewan McGregor’s daughters, actress and photographer Clara McGregor with songwriter Esther McGregor, who were portrayed in Los Angeles.
Asked how he thought the ads would resonate with Fendi’s customers, Brunschwig said the brand has “always been a family story, involving strong women, from the founders, to their five daughters, then Silvia who has involved her daughters in the first step of this project.” His belief is that by involving these additional five families, customers “will themselves feel part of the family and identify themselves even more with the Fendi woman” world.
The company worked to capture “authentic, intimate, real family moments, private and genuine.” The Peekaboo itself “was originally designed by Silvia Fendi with the idea of a whispered luxury, where the most precious part of the bag is actually hidden and it’s inside the bag.”
Brunschwig was particularly impressed by the Kardashians’ accommodating and professional manner when faced with unexpected outside hiccups in the organization of the shoot that had nothing to do with the family. “We discovered an incredible and touching aspect of this family who have been incredibly supportive of Fendi. Without going into details, when planning such a big shooting sometimes some issues can arise and the way they reacted to it has been absolutely mind-blowing,” he said.
To emphasize the longevity and timelessness of the Peekaboo, the company believed in a story to tell through time, rather than a one-shot campaign. The reaction to the first installment was “tremendous,” said Brunschwig. “People perfectly understood the storytelling and mood of this initiative and many have taken pictures of themselves with their own Peekaboo bag using the #MeandMyPeekaboo hashtag on their Instagram accounts.” The second chapter, he believes, will “touch a lot of people,” too.
Fendi is associated with Rome, but at the same time Brunschwig felt that “the the Peekaboo is such a global and well-known icon that it’s not about the place but rather about people and their families. The cities have a reference related to the family that was captured in that specific city, which is in fact their own city. Los Angeles is like Rome, Seoul, Hong Kong or Tokyo.”
The company does not have a specific number of episodes mapped out going forward. “Our idea is to continue as long as we will have a family story to tell,” he said.
Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian and North West are one of the families portrayed in Fendi’s campaign marking the bag’s 10th anniversary.