For her latest menswear collection, Silvia Venturini Fendi went heavy on the lightest of cashmere. The Fendi AW23 menswear show opened with a grey cashmere toga. Well, sort of. It was a zip-up chore jacket with a sheath of cashmere draped across it. The asymmetric silhouette quickly emerged as a motif, echoed by Donna Summer on the Giorgio Moroder-curated soundtrack, the disco ball lighting and a delightfully camp giant pinball set. She was clearly thinking about the nightlife of her youth (Studio 54, obvs) and those diaphanous asymmetric Halston dresses that she probably still has lying around in her wardrobe. The spirit of them was here — albeit in cashmere, and for men. Think ribbed-knit cold-shoulder tank tops, sari-draped sweaters with leather pants, sweaters slashed across the torso or gossamer-thin enough to see what lay beneath (nothing). There were more cashmere coats than you could count, boxy cashmere suits that came with asymmetric skirting over trousers, slouchy cashmere tracksuits, woven cashmere bucket bags stuffed with XXL fringed mohair blankets, fringed cashmere, skimpy cashmere, even cashmere hats! This was cashmere with jazz hands.
Cashmere by day, sparkle by night. Just as Fendi reinvented the use of fur, perhaps Silvia is doubling down on cashmere as an ultra-luxe material in need of a bit of fun. Ultimately, the collection tapped into a very simple question: What do you want to wear to look fabulous on a Monday morning, as well as Saturday night? Off-the-shoulder cashmere, obviously. Elsewhere in the show, there were sprayed-shearling coats that resembled worn-in denim, great big leather trousers that came with burnished patina, and the occasional touches of lavender, almost like a parma violet palette cleanser. It closed with sequin-spangled suiting, worn bare-chested or with more of those diagonal drapes.
Silvia often has a lot of fun with Fendi’s menswear — a few years ago, she had EastEnders’ Pat Butcher tacked to her moodboard. You get the sense that she uses humour to cut through the sometimes staid classicism so often associated with Italian menswear. This time there were sprayed-shearling baguettes; the bread rather than the Fendi handbags (although there were plenty of them, too, with multiple utility pockets) as well as ribbed-knit helmet hats that curled to resemble a cartoonish bob haircut. It’s a subtle hint that these clothes — like life itself — are for enjoyment, not to be taken too seriously. Sometimes you just want to wear a bit of cashmere and go out dancing.
Credits
All images via Spotlight