Last season, Fendi's Spring/Summer 2021 Haute Couture collection marked Kim Jones' debut collection for the brand with a Virginia Woolf-inspired collection that combined British literature with notes of Italian style. For his next act, the designer draws from one of the most classic eras of art, culture, and history: ancient Greece.

While Fendi's collections have always grounded themselves in Roman roots-see Silvia Venturi Fendi's latest Spring/Summer 2022 collection for Fendi Men-the Fall/Winter 2021 Haute Couture show travels back to the time before the Roman Empire, when Greece was still in charge of Italy's modern-day capital. However, Jones negotiates Classical and Hellenistic motifs against the creative vision of director Pier Paolo Pasolini.



“Pasolini observed Rome become modern – and that is what is interesting to me: connecting eras, the old with the new, the past with the present," explained Jones. “Rome is a fascinating city because it has so many pasts – and I was drawn to Pasolini because I have always been inspired by his vision of the world. He is something of an outsider in Roman history, but one whose voice remains constant.”

Swirls of floral embroidery and lace punctuate select garments as modern interpretations of Corinthian Order column volutes. Silk gowns pool in trompe l’oeil effects, while earrings and shoe heels incorporate architecture elements like Ionic Order volutes and rounded-arch bridges.

To capture the collection, Jones sought the artistic guidance of director Luca Guadagnino. "When a historian peers into history, they do it directly,” said Guadagnino. “But when a master filmmaker and poet like Pasolini looks into the eyes of history, his gaze is a sublimating one. Through it, history becomes an urgent and delicate possession of now… the past enters the present and breathes our air.”