At dawn in Rome, the atelier breathes like a living organism. Light slants through tall windows, brushing across bolts of organza and skeins of silk as if blessing the work within. Silvia Venturini Fendi moves quietly yet commandingly through the room, pausing at a mannequin where a balloon hem flares like a fountain jet, or leaning over a seamstress whose hands work organza into a translucent collar. Patterncutters sketch chalk lines like cartographers mapping a new world. This is not just preparation for a fashion show—it is theatre, ritual, invention. A centenary of heritage distilled into fabric and form.
Half a world away in Sydney, Marc Newson is orchestrating a different kind of magic. His studio is flooded with daylight, reflecting off aluminium models and digital screens. Known for reshaping how we fly, sit and move through the world, he has always embraced the future without discarding the past. His pencil scrawls vivid squares of colour—pixels that ripple into quilt-like abstractions. His inspiration? A FENDI floral motif, expanded until it bleeds into pixels, evoking both ancestral patchworks and the dawn of colour television. Twenty-five years ago, he collaborated with FENDI to place plush dice in his concept car—a playful nod to the house’s fur atelier roots. Today, on the maison’s 100th anniversary, he returns with something far grander: a kaleidoscopic landscape for Silvia’s collection to stride upon.
Two worlds. Two vocations. Two visions converging in a collection that is less seasonal wardrobe, more manifesto.
Silvia explains: “It’s about a relaxed and colourful sense of ease with a romantic elegance… simple gestures with complex work behind them.” What unfolds on the runway is precisely that: simplicity made spectacular.
Under Newson’s quilted colourscape, the womenswear is featherlight yet architectural. Balloon hems trap air like sculpted bubbles. Fishtail skirts flick with flirtation. Shirts are reborn—into tuxedo-bib blouses, irregularly pleated minis, sharp shirt-dresses—boyish one moment, feminine the next. Fabrics dissolve boundaries: crochet polos meet translucent organza, silk twin sets shimmer beside shell-suited tailoring. Every detail is meticulously playful: daisies embroidered like morning dew, glossy discs shimmering like digital polka dots, cartoon florals whispering nostalgia.
Menswear and womenswear converse in perfect synchronicity. Suspenders and corsetry details appear as punctuation marks across silhouettes. Soft tailoring is cinched and unzipped, made modular for the city’s restless tempo. And always—colour. Edible, irresistible, the palette pulses from sun-bleached white to turmeric yellows, vermillion shocks, bubblegum pinks and turquoise bursts. Colour is no longer decoration—it is therapy, provocation, joy.
But it is in the accessories that FENDI reveals its most covetable secrets. The Collier handbag, already whispered about among insiders, is destined to be SS26’s it-bag. Bead-like baubles encircle its ruched pouch with playful gravitas—an object as artful on a gallery plinth as it is irresistible on the arm. The trapezoidal FENDI Way bag is equally compelling, its bold suede and calfskin geometry promising the chicest update to urban wardrobes. The Baguette and Peekaboo—two icons of modern fashion—return reborn: sequined interiors, floral cages, woven leather structures. To own one is to own a slice of FENDI’s centennial future.
On foot, the Arco sling-back sandal emerges as the season’s quiet revolution. Its hooked block heel and engineered knit panels fuse Newson’s industrial precision with Silvia’s poetic wit. Expect them to stride from runway to street with the inevitability of a storm. Men’s woven loafers and lace-up flats, meanwhile, promise to be the connoisseur’s choice—understated, clever, unmissable.
And then the jewels: Delfina Delettrez Fendi offers coral-shaped FF earrings, enamel nuggets, filigree cuffs—a treasure-trove designed for those who understand that accessories are not afterthoughts but declarations.
This is not just another summer collection. This is the house of FENDI, on its centenary, laying down a marker for the century to come. Silvia’s devotion to duality—ease and rigour, romance and utility—meets Newson’s obsession with colour and movement. Together, they have forged a vision of tomorrow in fabric, light and form.
Fashion lovers will not forgive themselves for missing this moment. To acquire a piece from SS26 is not only to refresh a wardrobe, but to step into history—to claim a fragment of FENDI’s centenary dream. And make no mistake: the Collier bag, the Arco sandal, the kaleidoscopic florals—they will not linger on shelves. They are the season’s rarest jewels, destined to disappear into the wardrobes of those swift and discerning enough to act first.
SS26 is not a collection. It is a call to arms, a seduction, a promise. And when it lands in boutiques, the only question is: will you have the courage to seize it?
FENDI SS26 Men and Women collection will be available at all FENDI stores worldwide as early as the end of the final quarter of 2025.
*Photos courtesy of FENDI.