Delfina Delettrez Fendi On Continuing a Vaunted Family Legacy
The third-generation Fendi scion finally joined the family business as creative director of jewellery after years designing and running her own brand. The O'Lock, her first full collection for the house, comes out this season.
Bringing new order to Fendi this season is not just debuting womenswear artistic director Kim Jones and his collection of sizzlingly sensual wardrobe staples, but also Delfina Delettrez Fendi – daughter of long-time brand matriarch Silvia Venturini Fendi – as its creative director of jewellery.
Delfina Delettrez Fendi modelling for Fendi's S/S'21 haute couture show – Kim Jones' first-ever presentation as artistic director of the Roman house's collections for women.
The Fall Winter 2021 season sees the introduction of Delettrez Fendi's first proper collection of jewellery for the house. Designed in tandem with Kim Jones' first ready-to-wear collection for the house (call that two firsts), the O'Lock line accented nearly every look on the runway. Besides jewellery, the line also extends to hair clips, perfume holders, as well as hardware details such as belt buckles, cufflinks on shirts and chain bag straps.
Below, she speaks about joining – and getting a new generation hooked onto – the family business.
It's safe to assume that you've always had the option to work at Fendi. Of all time, why did you take on this role of the brand's jewellery creative director of jewellery now?
“I’ve collaborated with Fendi in the past on small collections (the fur-trimmed jewellery for the brand’s S/S ’14 collection that reflect her signature whimsy, for example), and that approach has permitted me to focus on my own brand. I’m proud to have built a name in the jewellery world and be recognised not only for my last name, but also my talent.
However when you’re ‘the daughter of’, you have to win over prejudices and demonstrate your talent twice... I felt that now was the perfect time to dedicate myself fully to Fendi. It happened very naturally during an informal chat with Kim and I immediately said yes.
With him there’s a lot of dialogue – he loves storytelling and is very Italian like this. We talk and imagine this new Fendi woman together: what she wants and wears; how she thinks. It’s extremely exciting to see this woman taking shape.”
How do the dynamics between you, your mother and Kim work?
“We always say that I’m the walking archive and my mother is the talking archive. Through what I wear, I inspire and show him the past, reactivating it… My mother always has a story to tell about what I put on, and it’s a natural, organic way of allowing him to participate in what happened at the brand before his arrival and allowing him to bring the past into the present.”
What's your approach to designing jewellery and how will this differ between what you do for Fendi and your namesake brand?
“I’m interested in reshaping and reinventing the codes of jewellery, which by nature are very traditional and classic. This means giving new shape and meaning to classics and trying to speak to women of my generation. I play with their codes: the belly piercings at my label (a brand signature) for example; and now with carabiners (the inspiration for the O’Lock pieces she’s created for Fendi this season)...
What I do at each house nourishes the other and it’s a great exercise to split my time between both. At Fendi, which has such a rich history, I try to reinvent and play with codes in a contemporary way. At my brand, which is only 12 years old, I do the opposite: I build up, develop and create new codes.”
Tell us more about the inspirations behind O'Lock, the line that marks your debut as Fendi's creative director revealed as part of the brand's F/W '21 collection?
“I started from the brand’s roots, looking at the FF logo designed by Karl Lagerfeld in 1965. For us, the FF is not just an iconic logo, but a family crest.
It’s not linked to trends or logomania. It’s an emblem of a hundred-year-long family history and I reinterpreted it in a contemporary, graphic way, taking inspiration from the arches of the Palazzo della Civilta Italiana (Fendi’s headquarters in Rome) and rounding it, giving it a feminine, oval carabiner shape. (This motif is the foundation for gold-toned earrings, chain necklaces, rings, cuffs and even hair clips in the collection.)
Its name meanwhile comes from the idea that it’s always five o’clock somewhere – five is a magical number at Fendi because of the five Fendi sisters who helped to build the brand.”
How has working at your family brand been for you so far?
“I feel at home as everything is familiar to me. It’s like looking through a family album and adding new images. At the same time, it is a new way for me to approach the creative process because at my own brand, which is small and independent, I am not only the designer, but also the CEO.
I also know that I am here at Fendi to pass on a story made by great women who have dedicated 100 per cent of their creativity and passion to this brand. A lot is expected from me because I represent the continuity of this family story that’s done so much for Italian fashion and the emancipation of women in society… I feel a great responsibility towards keeping the family name in high regard.”
A version of this article first appeared in the October 2021 Life Is Beautiful edition of FEMALE