As everyone embraces leisure, Silvia Venturini Fendi is bringing back sartorial glamour with her FW22 menswear collection.

Fendi
Fendi Menswear FW 2022. Image: Fendi

The cut of coats and tailored suits with shorts may carry the weight of the traditional codes of menswear but the collection remained invariably lighthearted. Proportions were also used to exaggerate the familiar tropes of shirting, jacket and knitwear.

Leather pants in rich ox-blood play off oversized shirting while what looks like a timeless, understated wool coat in tan reveals a monogrammed inner layer.

Silvia may indeed want to pedestal old school style but it’s going to be on her terms.

But maybe most pertinent is how unabashedly tactile the show was. The collection presents a visceral mode of fashion. One that can be felt even just by looking at it.

Fendi
Fendi Menswear FW 2022. Image: Fendi

Minks and shearling, Vichy check tweed, soft-as-butter leathers – fashion for Fendi has always been a material artform but the emphasis here is more pronounced than usual.

Touch and texture are clearly something of a focus for Silvia, an interesting contrast as the brand begins to flirt with the metaverse by collaborating with crypto/hardware wallet maker Ledger.

The Paris-based company was brought in to transform both the O’Lock motif and Baguette designs into luxury tech accessories for the LEDGER Nano X.

Fendi
Fendi Menswear FW 2022. Image: Fendi

Because you need to store your NFTs and Ethereum somewhere, right?

It was maybe the more subtle details that offered the most surprising elements of the show.

Cut-out segments on the chest and peekaboo collars became a way to highlight the flash of dandified jewellery.

Pearls have been around for a few seasons, but they were given their rightful honour here with clothing designed to create space for them. 

Fendi
Fendi Menswear FW 2022. Image: Fendi

This attention to adornment was also given space in further detail via symbols of a bygone male sophistication, the collection is adorned with 3D pearl and diamond digital prints, shearling floral brooches, pearl O’Lock chokers and crystal FF pendants.

Special shout out to the Mary Jane brogues that have been closed with watch straps – a truly inspired finishing touch.

Fendi Menswear FW 2022. Image: Fendi
Fendi Menswear FW 2022. Image: Fendi
Fendi Menswear FW 2022. Image: Fendi