Fendi — and logomania — have arrived in the rarified world of high jewelry.
Employing more than 1,000 diamonds, Delfina Delettrez Fendi, artistic director of jewelry at Fendi, created a three-piece set featuring cascading white stones interspersed with yellow baguettes arranged in F formations that one has to hunt for, à la “Where’s Waldo?”
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“I wanted to use the logo in a subtle way, almost as a hidden code,” Delettrez Fendi said in an interview on Wednesday in Paris. “For me, the Fs are almost my family crest.”
Karl Lagerfeld, who designed Fendi’s furs and ready-to-wear for more than 50 years before his death in 2019, created the inverted FF monogram in 1965. It has appeared mainly on leather goods, but also on clothing and luggage.
Yellow, the color of Fendi packaging, was another key ingredient in the jewelry, and Delettrez Fendi spent almost a year hunting for a set of exceptional fancy diamonds with a subtle orange cast to suggest the color of a sunset in Rome.
Courtesy of Fendi
“I really wanted to work with the concept of purity and lightness, and I wanted the pieces to be meaningful and evocative,” the designer explained. “I thought that there is nothing more evocative than the diamond, and there is nothing more meaningful at Fendi than the yellow.”
There are four central stones, a wink to the fact that Delettrez Fendi, daughter of Silvia Venturini Fendi, artistic director of accessories and menswear collections at the Roman house, is a member of the fourth generation of the founding family.
Named “Flavus” after the ancient Roman term for yellow, the jewelry set made its debut on the opening look of Fendi’s fall 2022 haute collection show by Kim Jones, artistic director of couture and womenswear collections since 2020.
The cascade of stones on the earrings and necklace are meant to evoke a Roman fountain, and wink to the alluvial sourcing for the stones.
“Movement is important; comfort is fundamental,” Delettrez Fendi said. “Subtle, whispered luxury is what I’m attracted to, and also what our clients are able to understand.”
Her cocktail ring design is static, but has the appearance of a stack of several rings.
Delettrez Fendi stopped short of calling her first high jewelry effort a teaser, and hinted that future designs would be linked to haute couture collections.
“It’s just the beginning of a long, long story,” he said. “The couture is a platform of freedom of expression.”
The high jewelry project was more than a year in the making. A big challenge was finding stones with the right intensity of color and the right shape for an emerald cut.
She noted the diamonds are “particularly young,” only about 900 million years old versus the usual 3 billion to 4 billion years. “It’s just so fascinating,” she commented.
The three pieces, each in their own mini trunk, will be sold separately or as a set, with prices ranging from about 350,000 euros to 1.2 million euros. The set boasts a total of 7.54 carats.
Delettrez Fendi cited a strong consumer response to her fashion jewelry at Fendi, including her designs for the first three couture collections by Jones, employing such unusual materials as Murano glass and Carrera marble.
Ear cuffs that dress the entire ear area have proven popular. “Even though they’re quite big in scale, they feel very comfortable and very present. They dress you a lot,” she said.
SEE ALSO:
Fendi Is Eyeing a Collaboration With Marc Jacobs, Sources Say
Everything to Know About the Fendace Collaboration
Five High Jewelry Must-sees During Paris Couture Week
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