Kim Jones' Fendi muses have always come from within the family. There are five sisters, all who took over the business from their mother and father, and two generations to follow. When it comes to stylish Italian women, Jones has his fill, and this season, for Fendi's Fall Winter 23 collection, Jones zeroed in on fourth-generation Fendi and jewellery designer Delfina Delettrez Fendi as the baseline for Fall.

It feels as though Jones is refining his approach to the Brand, which is the first, and most exciting thing to notice. All of the lace and the sequins offered in Spring 23 Haute Couture were given a masculine treatment. Jones leant into his expert affinity for menswear fabrications and silhouettes and spliced them with the feminine Fendi shapes he's been riffing on for past seasons. This came through in double collared coats, neat-as-a-pin waistcoats with open shoulder sleeves and backs, trousers cut on the bias with school girl-like pleated skirts layered over top, and mackintosh jackets that revealed glimmering sequin lining as models moved through the space.

The slips that were presented for couture were reworked and applied onto poplin shirting and paired with tall, thigh high boots. Knitwear was deconstructed and offered an air of sensuality, pushed off the shoulder or unbuttoned down to the hip, some so translucent that lingerie peeked through, all inspired by Delfina. "There’s a chicness but a perversity to the way she twists Fendi, which is what I love.” Jones says in his show notes.

 

The House introduces a new bag in tandem with the collection, designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi. She named it the Fendi Multi, playing up the duality of the Brand with a transforming bag that that folds from day tote to evening bag and back again.

“I think what is really nice is the movement of the bag, that it can be two things in one,” she notes. “That duality is very Fendi – as is the idea of something which appears simple but, in reality, is very complex.”

It is reflected back in the collection, where pieces have the ability to transform with the wearer. There are mini skirts in the same suiting as trousers that wrap around the waist and pants that are followed by cape-like swaths of fabric; while later on the idea of transformation nods back to Lagerfeld's era, where his 1981 sketches for multipurpose knitwear are reinterpreted.

Elements of the history of the House are everywhere, and Jones' innate and astute skills as a true archivist are fully flexed for Fall 23.

Watch the full Fendi Fall Winter 23 show, below.