Stefano Pilati Is Kim Jones’ Newest ‘Buddy of Fendi’

When in Rome, Stefano Pilati feels proper at house, fashion-wise — much more so than his native Milan.

“There’s a freedom within the Roman fashion that Milan doesn’t have,” he stated. “It’s a sunnier metropolis the place the whole lot is extra — extra female, extra masculine in addition to bohemian and eccentric.”

The designer plans to use his “very Italian” aesthetic, his tailoring prowess and flapper power to his forthcoming collaboration with Fendi on a fall assortment underneath the Roman vogue home’s new “Mates of Fendi” banner.

The gathering is slated to launch in Fendi boutiques and on-line starting Oct. 26, backed by in-store occasions in London, Dubai, New York, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Chengdu and Hong Kong.

WWD broke the information on Sept. 14 that Kim Jones, who has made collaborations a key function of his tenure at Fendi, was plotting one with Pilati, one of many designers he admires most.

“He’s a pal, an inspiration and a designer for contemporary occasions — at all times trying to the longer term, asking questions and proffering options,” Jones stated.

As Jones does as Fendi’s creative director of high fashion, ready-to-wear and fur collections for ladies, Pilati stated it was necessary for him to acknowledge that Fendi was based by 5 sisters, and perpetuated by a 3rd and fourth era of designing ladies, particularly Silvia Venturini Fendi and her daughter Delfina Delettrez Fendi.

Venturini Fendi is creative director of Fendi equipment and menswear, whereas Delettrez Fendi is jewellery inventive director. Jones typically takes inspiration from their private fashion.

“I needed to have fun the Fendis — as I at all times have fun ladies,” Pilati informed WWD from his house base of Berlin. “I requested myself, ‘So what now? What’s my heritage?’ All of those ladies are past and it was logical for me and Silvia to speak about them, to speak about our shared heritage of ladies. I like Silvia and Delfina. I like the way in which they transfer, converse and focus on. You be taught and also you respect.”

Pilati’s one-off assortment spans the menswear and womenswear divide at Fendi, and he began with tailoring.

“It’s a celebration of who someone is — a celebration of that freedom,” he stated. “Even when individuals try to disguise who they’re, one thing comes by — a gesture, a means of strolling, how one thing is worn. It’s the gentle of who someone actually is. I want the method to information me and I used to be very free. I got here up with a brand new brand for this assortment. I felt free sufficient to take action.”

Prized for his eager vogue instincts, voluptuous and distinctive tailoring — plus his knack for eye-catching footwear and purses — Pilati stated he settled on the Roaring Twenties, which have parallels with at present, and significantly the flapper.

“There’s a sense of flux and transition within the silhouettes themselves. Issues are undefined and unfinished,” he stated. “It’s a query of defining issues now, of being open, open to new methods of defining is necessary each for the garments and the perspective.

“I’m so touched by this chance that Kim, Silvia and Fendi have given me to be a lot myself. I’m very trustworthy in what I’m proposing and I’m humbled by what I’m doing,” he added.

In keeping with the corporate, Mates of Fendi represents a “new technique to introduce particular tasks and collections that differ from Fendi’s fundamental collections and are achieved with exterior designers, homes and organizations.”

Instigated by Jones and Venturini Fendi, it should unfurl as “tasks and collections” that cross the “get together strains” of the style trade.

Pilati’s designs will likely be featured in a devoted print and outside marketing campaign that can break within the lead-up to the product drop. The gathering covers all product classes.

Jones has already unfurled tasks with two different designers with whom he’s very pleasant — Donatella Versace and Marc Jacobs.

Pilati is greatest recognized for his tenures on the design helms of Yves Saint Laurent and Zegna. He has not too long ago dabbled in furnishings design alongside his Berlin-based vogue assortment Random Identities.

The dapper Italian designer made a splash throughout Paris Style Week final June, taking in Jones’ spring 2024 males’s present for Dior and strolling the runway for Pharrell Williams’ debut as menswear inventive director at Louis Vuitton.

Within the fall, Pilati rebooted his Random Identities label after a two-year hiatus and lined up a like-minded distribution companion in Dover Road Market Paris.

Random Identities was boundary-breaking when it was unveiled in 2018, initially as a three way partnership with Canadian on-line retailer Ssense. Genderless, seasonless and opulent, however at a recent value level, it attracts on homosexual and membership tradition in Berlin, the place Pilati has primarily based himself since leaving Zegna in 2016 following a three-year stint.

His Mates of Fendi assortment displays his extra freewheeling method, combining “the rigor and construction of a masculine world” with female strains, significantly within the tailoring, based on the home.

Pilati got here to worldwide prominence when he succeeded Tom Ford at Saint Laurent, the place he served as inventive director from 2004 to 2012. Earlier in his profession he labored in senior design and material improvement positions for various Italian vogue homes, together with Miu Miu, Prada and Giorgio Armani.

Jones, who joined Fendi in September 2020, wasted little time in pursuing collaborations and in September 2021 unveiled a full-scale model swap with Versace.

Final yr he tapped Jacobs to create a set inside spring 2023 Fendi ladies’s assortment that was proven throughout New York Style Week and likewise teamed with Tiffany & Co. for particular Baguette purses.