MILAN (Reuters) - Milan kicked off its catwalk calendar on Wednesday, with Italian luxury label Fendi exploring the "ease of dressing with a certain Roman freeedom" at its womenswear fashion show. Milan Fashion Week follows New York and London events in which designers have been presenting their creations for spring/summer 2024. At Fendi, founded in Rome in 1925 and now part of French luxury conglomerate LVMH (EPA:LVMH), designer Kim Jones combined the "masculine tailoring" of leather coats with materials, such as kid mohair, that convey "a more fluid and feminine sensibility".
Models, all wearing leather gloves, paraded among giant white bags, clad in warm browns, beiges and oranges, as well as a soothing sugar paper colour and an occasional lemon yellow.
A patchwork of fabrics recreated Fendi's F logo on coats and dresses through "a playful and abstract exploration" of the symbol Karl Lagerfeld created in 1966, a year after joining the Roman brand as creative director.
Reinterpreted in multiple ways over the years, the logo was born as a double F in a square. Also, the colour palette was largely taken from Largerfeld's 1999 Spring/Summer collection, Fendi said.
"In Rome there is an elegance in ease and not caring what anybody thinks - that is the real luxury. In this collection I wanted to reflect that", Jones said in fashion notes. "It is not about the spectacle of being looked at, but the reality of wearing and the confidence and chicness that comes with ti", he added. Milan Fashion Week includes 62 physical fashion shows of spring summer collections. It runs until September 25 and will feature shows from high-end labels including Giorgio Armani, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Versace. Milan fashion week will mark the debut of Sabato De Sarno as creative director of Gucci, Peter Hawkings as creative director of Tom Ford, and Simone Bellotti as creative director of Bally.