The androgynous and ambiguous air of Charlotte Rampling in The Night Porter (1974); Florinda Bolkan’s uninhibited allure in A Common Sense of Modesty (1976); the bourgeois elegance of the tormented Monica Vitti in Red Desert (1964): these cinematic masterpieces present a wealth of aesthetics beyond genres and binary divisions, which are also reflected in Stefano Pilati’s capsule collection for Fendi.
The Milanese designer, who founded the label Random Identities in 2017 and boasts a three-decade strong career in fashion spanning from Armani to Yves Saint Laurent, Prada to Ermenegildo Zegna, is the first special guest of Friends of Fendi, a collection of 42 looks to be mixed freely beyond genres and categories, inaugurated by Kim Jones, Fendi’s creative director of womenswear, and Silvia Venturini Fendi.
“I am a great admirer of Stefano’s work and consider him a source of inspiration for what I do. He is a friend and a designer who perfectly embodies the contemporary zeitgeist; he looks to the future, asking questions and providing solutions,” explains Jones. “With his label Random Identities Stefano has proposed a way of dressing and undressing that I have always found very intriguing – I wear his clothes myself.” Pilati’s mission? “Kim and Silvia offered me an attractive challenge: to explore the Fendi world through my lens, with complete carte blanche,” he declares.
“We started from these assumptions and ‘Fendomised’ them,” Jones adds. “Fusing that easy and subversive chic, which has always been part of Fendi’s codes, with a new approach that is far from any stereotype. In addition to a new ideological approach it is an ideal fusion between the imagery of two cities. The Milanese one – sober and quiet – of Pilati, and the typically Roman one of the label with the double F.”
“I find that fashion has always been deeply influenced by its context,” Pilati agrees. “Rome is sunny, Milan less so. Rome is a decadent and sublime city that guards humanity’s past, but does so with a certain lightness. This collection was largely born out of my reflection on Roman ‘lights’, from which some of the colours of these outfits came to life, such as ‘Empire’ yellow, a very particular tone of red, between cardinal and magenta, and ‘Roma’ green, an unusual shade between pine and sage.”
Clara Melchiorre
DANIELE LA MALFA
If the colours are those of the Eternal City, then the silhouette celebrates the rigour and construction of men’s tailoring and the softness and curves of haute couture. Think Jazz Age flapper petticoats, transparent blouses, the classic LBD, precisely honed blazers and trousers with boxer short details, inspired by what Pilati terms “certain details of hip-hop clothing”. The brand’s signature Baguette and Peekaboo bags have also been reinterpreted, likewise its iconic double F logo, reimagined as a tactile pattern on shirts and overcoats.