Family Jewels

As Fendi kicks off its centennial year, the Roman bastion of fashion, and its third-generation artistic director Silvia Venturini Fendi, looked to luxury, lineage and life stories for a collection laden with treasures

- JACK MOSS

Though it is everywhere around her, Silvia Venturini Fendi does not like to reside in the past.

A scion of the Fendi dynasty – a largely matriarchal lineage – she first visited the Roman fashion house's atelier on Via Borgognona aged one, and grew up there, watching her mother Anna and her four sisters, Paola, Franca, Carla and Alda, at work (they had inherited the fur and leather goods workshop from their parents, founders Adele and Edoardo Fendi, transforming it into a globally recognised brand).

Aged five, she met Karl Lagerfeld at the beginning of his 54-year tenure at the house – she remembers her mother's excitement at his visits, and her own desire to follow him around to find out why – later working alongside the designer when she joined the company officially in 1992 (she briefly escaped to Rio de Janeiro, where she made jewellery on the beach). Two years later, she would begin the roles she has held since – artistic director of accessories and menswear – and, for a brief period in 2019 after Lagerfeld's death, she designed the womenswear line as well, a role she has recently taken on again following Kim Jones' departure last October.