Personally, Kim Jones at Fendi hasn’t exactly achieved the same kind of reverence and appeal for me as compared to his work at Dior Men. Jones’ prior couture collections had often ventured into quite old-school territories, with one particular collection visibly aging Kate Moss.
For Fendi’s spring/summer 2023 haute couture collection, Jones may have finally come into his own. With a focused 39-look collection, it felt modern and interesting enough to warrant an haute couture tag. The collection was composed mostly of slinky gowns in soft pastels and metallic hues, with exceptional draping that at times were reminiscent of ancient Roman goddesses.
“The collection is an inner world made into an external one—both figuratively and literally—with a sense of underwear becoming eveningwear,” Jones explains in the collection notes. With that, lingerie played a major role in the inspiration behind the couture collection. At times, they seemed to be fused together with the gowns as lace appliqués or panels—not really segmenting the body but more so to give the illusion of conturing and shaping the body.
In addition to lace as a reference to lingerie, Atelier Jean Pierre Ollier cut, hand-painted, trimmed and then reassembled lace as part of the collection’s key techniques. This was evident in the last few looks of Fendi’s spring/summer 2023 haute couture collection. A full gown utilising the same technique would take 560 hours to be fully completed.
There were also moments of multi-use—not exactly a common element in couture—in the form of reversible, embellished coats, as well as apron wrap skirts (looks 3 and 9) that can also be worn as stoles.
While the collection felt thoroughly feminine in its aesthetic, especially coupled with the sort of weightlessness evident in the fabrications, Jones refashioned carabiners as luxurious bejewelled objets d’arts to hold together drapes in quite nonchalant fashion.
If this is the direction—a celebration of couture techniques and the female form in its contemporary notions—that Jones is ready to continue for future couture collections, they would most definitely be something to look forward to.
View the full Fendi spring/summer 2023 haute couture collection in the gallery below.
