Of all the shows during haute couture week, Fendi’s presentation is among those where the talents and tenacity of les petite mains are perhaps most obvious. Yesterday’s haute fourrure show was no exception, with the exquisite craftsmanship of the atelier staff once again bringing Karl Lagerfeld’s extraordinary creative vision to life.
After being transformed into a dusky woodland setting, M Lagerfeld filled Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with an abundance of bold and fantastical florals. With a color palette not restricted by nature, but limited only by the designer’s imagination, poppies appeared in shades of blue and yellow, as well as traditional red, scattered across intricately embroidered dresses and decorating sumptuous cover-ups.
Adding an additional layer of luxury, the flowers that featured on a light brown sheared Persian lamb coat, as well as on a sheer blue sheath dress, were crafted from shaved mink, as were the 10,000 round paillettes that were used to create a multicolored egg-shaped cape.
And shaved mink wasn’t the only feat in terms of fur craftsmanship. The skirt of a short sleeveless dress was fashioned from sable dyed to a bright coral shade.
Accessories played to the floral theme, with models carrying leather and fur flower bags, crafted into irises, poppies and anemones, and many of their brightly colored booties were adorned with a flower at the ankle in complimentary shades.
In keeping with haute couture tradition, the show closed with an elegant white wedding gown. An achievement in itself in terms of embroidery, the attached lattice shawl alone consisted of 9,000 tiny discs that took 1,250 hours to sew by hand - another example of the Roman atelier’s meticulous attention to detail, which no doubt was in the minds of the showgoers at the finale when they rose to their feet to congratulate the designer.
Photos: businessoffashion.com