With the brand’s centenary year fast approaching, the Milan show put the spotlight on ‘selleria,’ the Roman master saddlers’ stitching technique.
Artistic director Silvia Venturini considers Fendi a travelling time capsule mirroring decades and destinations, with Italian craftsmanship as its forever north star. The Men’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection is itself an homage to the universal—sublimating house codes that predate the first men’s silhouette revealed at Fendi in 1990.
Today, that wardrobe’s pillars become sartorial puzzle pieces, activating soft expressions of contemporary masculinity through the lens of modern luxury. Once emblematic of an international elite, the notion of uniforms for work and play are deconstructed and dreamed anew in powdery shades: a mineral palette of sherbet and mist, ivory, caramel, and buttermilk mingle with soft blues and natural indigo, black and forest green.
Somewhere between sports and ceremony, the idea of the Fendi Club emerges, its crest proudly emblazoned like a fantasy coat-of-arms on breast pocket and button.
From head to toe, the collection revels in the virtuosity of the selleria stitch, a technique passed on to the Fendi family by Roman master saddlers in 1925. Scaled up and down, it is re-interpreted as a broken pinstripe suiting jacquard and threaded as a stripe or tonal FF logo through linen and plush textures, applied as a surface on Japanese boro denim, or reduced to a minimalist frame on crisp wool outerwear and leathergoods.
Subtle volumes create whispers of the past, as in an ample cloth bomber jacket, fluid trench coat, and three-button blazers paired with slashed trousers cut loose through the leg. Contoured details twist the propriety of garments: poplin shirt sleeves slashed at the elbow may be worn long or short, polo plackets twist from throat to rib, and asymmetric silk knits unbutton down the shoulder creating an airy modularity.
Over pleated shorts, long, patch-pocket overshirts with silk ties are layered beneath short summer jackets in tonal combinations of linen, leather, Madras check cotton, and ultralight suede.
The men’s spring/summer 2025 accessories collection echoes the season’s selleria obsession, from the Peekaboo ISeeU Soft bag and supple diagonal shoppers, to the new zippered Baguette Double crossbody bag, and a patchwork Baguette crafted from multi-coloured offcuts from the Fendi ateliers.
Whipstitch details adorn the season’s contrast panelled Fendi Force sneakers, alongside moulded lug-sole loafers and patent leather or wax thread-embroidered slip-on flats.
The Fendi men’s spring/summer 2025 fashion show took place this week at the 7,000-sqm. Open Studio at Super Studio Maxi in Milan, the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold-certified event space in Europe.
Designed by Nico Vascellari, the minimalist set design featured a series of six mirror columns, mobile monoliths that track the models’ path throughout the show, creating infinite corridors and reflections.
A custom electronic soundtrack by Vascellari in collaboration with Rocco Rampino featured an oscillating, romantic beat designed in response to the collection and its airy, daylight setting.
