Fendi Eyes New Strategy for Casa Line
MILAN — In a new approach to its home collection, Fendi has teamed again with architect and interior designer Cristina Celestino.
“We’ve come full circle,” said Fendi men’s and accessories creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi, in an exclusive preview of the collection. “After working for 10 years with emerging designers at Design Miami, we are evolving the collaboration, helping them to become true stars, expanding the production and targeting the market,” marking a new approach for Fendi Casa.
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The Rome-based company previously worked with Celestino on the “Happy Room” project presented at Design Miami in 2016.
During Milan Design Week, running from April 9 to 14, Fendi will unveil at its space on Via Solari an installation called “Back Home” displaying the latest pieces designed by Celestino for the house.
“Cristina likes to work with geometries and intarsia, I am very happy with the final result,” enthused Venturini Fendi, clarifying that this project will be integrated in the Fendi Casa line and everything will be available for purchase. “It’s always positive to work with someone who has a different point of view,” she added, pointing also to Celestino’s irony, feminine touch and sense of color.
The collection celebrates Fendi’s Pequin striped motif — a reference to Fendi’s heritage as it was introduced in 1987, the same year the Casa line was launched. This signature pattern has become as recognizable as the FF logo, yet without showing the name of the brand, and is characterized by broad strips incorporating the same institutional black and brown tobacco colors of the FF logo. It was originally created in a coated fabric version, but it has been interpreted in materials including cotton, velvet and shearling.
Celestino reworked the Pequin on statement pieces to be displayed with an installation recalling a Roman bourgeois house and terrace from the Seventies, with a terracotta floor and antique sculptures, but there is also a nomadic element with a large Pequin tent defining indoor and outdoor spaces. The installation is divided into five areas: Terrace, Entrance, Waiting Room, Dressing Room and Living.
The Pequin takes center stage on the curved and soft silhouettes of armchairs and sofas.
The collection combines marbles and onyxes and metallic surfaces showing surprising tactile and color effects.
A range of mirrors and lamps reveal silhouettes inspired by cuff links, while the cabinets echo Art Deco stylistic codes, juxtaposing geometric shapes, bold curves and strong vertical lines, with surfaces recalling stardust powder and sunset tones.
Coffee tables and carpets are decorated with the FF logo in rose-like designs from Fendi’s archives, designed by Karl Lagerfeld in 1983, where the FF logo is discretely camouflaged.
As a complement to the collection, Venturini Fendi designed an exclusive luggage set worked in the Pequin motif, available both in the classic tobacco and black color match, as well as in the new blue, beige and powder pink combination, which will also be on display at the space on Via Solari.
The designer has also created a special and limited edition of the Peekaboo bag in only five pieces exclusively available at the Fendi boutique in Via Montenapoleone.
The “Back Home” collection is produced by Luxury Living Group, Fendi Casa’s licensee. Together, the two companies “aim at exploring an unusual dimension of contemporary decoration that is experimental, attractive and at the same time functional,” said Raffaella Vignatelli, Luxury Living Group president. “Cristina Celestino has once again been able to offer a new interpretation to the Fendi Casa collection. The ‘Back Home’ project embodies several feelings that enhance a delicate, contemporary and feminine approach to design and lifestyle.” Vignatelli enthused about the “stylistic connections” with the house, emphasized by Celestino.
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