“The Fendi SS19 men’s collection was inspired by dualism,” says Italian artist Nico Vascellari when describing his recent collaboration with the luxury brand, which comprises ready-to-wear (anoraks, blousons and knitted polo shirts) and accessories, spearheaded by the newly launched Fendi Peekaboo X-Lite bag.
“FF, after all, is double. When illustrating, I used playful anagrams to make opposites collide.” Vascellari’s scribbles are playful anagrams: Fendi spells ‘Fiend’, while the marque’s Italian hometown of Roma becomes ‘Amor’. Elsewhere, he imagined a Fendi bestiary that counts clawed frogs, demons and snakes with tongues the shape of Fendi’s FF logo.
T-shirts are inspired by playing cards: one bears the emblem of ‘JoKarl’, Vascellari’s cartoonish rendition of the brand's late creative director Karl Lagerfeld as a regal Joker; scion of the Fendi dynasty, Silvia Venturini Fendi, is naturally cast as Queen.
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Vascellari, who lives between Rome and Vittorio Veneto, a historic site in north-eastern Italy, is the fourth creative commissioned by Silvia Venturini Fendi to add artistic ourish to the brand’s menswear offering. He follows British artists John Booth (2016) and Sue Tilley (2017) and Instagram phenomenon Hey Reilly, who had his turn last year.
After solo displays at prestigious locations including Rome’s Villa Medici (2016) and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2017), Vascellari mounted an immersive Gesamtkunstwerk to premiere his Fendi creations last June. Tasked with creating Fendi’s SS19 Milan Fashion Week set, the artist envisioned a blackout chamber, which models reached via a trompe l’oeil Perspex cave lit with kinetic neon sculptures. Molto impressionante.