Donatella Versace, Kim Jones, and Silvia Venturini Fendi switched places for an epic fashion event that was something far fresher than the industry’s collaborations of yore.
Fendace, a 50-look collection composed of Jones’s and Venturini Fendi’s riff on Versace and Versace’s take on Fendi was conceived as a “celebration of Italian fashion and a to-hell-with-it disruption of the established order of things.”
This merging of competitors, particularly two iconic houses not under the same ownership, just “isn’t done” in fashion—until now. Fendi, Versace, and Jones are friends and colleagues, and after a tough year, they crossed party lines to have a little fun.
The creative directors invited one another into their family archives for inspiration and designed their take on the other’s DNA, honoring the work of Gianni Versace and Karl Lagerfeld in turn. Versace for Fendi melded the Fendi double-F monogram with its own Grecian key motif, while Fendi for Versace used the brand’s signature safety pins and sexiness with more of a punk rock edge.