The unprecedented collaboration between Fendi and Versace caused a sensation at Milan Fashion Week last September with a secret show entitled “The Swap.” It was called Fendace: Versace by Fendi – Fendi by Versace. A creative switch where, for the first time in the history of fashion, Donatella Versace and Silvia Venturini Fendi stepped out of their respective family creative offices to inspire each other. A real swapping of roles between two artistic directors who lead iconic Italian brands. Two realities that merge – temporarily? – by sharing archives for a crossover that highlights the stylistic and cultural DNA of both, with an exchange that also involves production. In fact, Fendi produced the Versace collection, while Versace produced the Fendi collection. Specifically, Versace by Fendi was inspired by the Nineties, a golden age for the brand founded by Gianni Versace, which is reinterpreted with the contemporary lexicon of the Fendi family. Versace’s Medusa meets La Greca with Fendi’s FF monogram. Whereas Fendi by Versace is constructed with Donatella’s punk rock vision, with safety pins and metal mesh dresses combined with lace and the Roman Maison’s logo. A gotha of famous top models were selected for the fashion show: Kirsten McMenamy, Mariacarla Boscono, Naomi Campbell, Esther Cañadas, Karen Elson, Gigi Hadid, Shalom Harlow and Kate Moss with her daughter Lila, Emily Ratajkowski, Anya Rubik, Irina Shayk, Amber Valletta. A double show broadcast on the social pages of both fashion houses, reaching almost 38,000 views in just a few seconds, despite the lack of promotion regarding the project, which remained secret until the very end. The most striking aspect of the event was the logo, or rather the two logos, in the brazen fusion of which – almost an artistic fake – the large part of the collaboration was based.
The logo was also the main and most explicit vehicle through which the synergy between Gucci and Balenciaga, both from the Kering Group, was explicited a few months ago. To celebrate the brand’s 100th anniversary in an unusual way, Alessandro Michele "hacked" the aesthetics of Demna Gvasalia. “A game born almost as a joke,” say the two designers. A series of outfits and accessories mix Balenciaga silhouettes with classic Gucci fabrics: Alessandro Michele’s 70s retro vibe on one side and Demna’s 90s techno grunge on the other. The most eye-catching pieces of the “contamination” were the Jackie 1961 handbag decorated with the diagonal Balenciaga print, and the maxi City in fabric with the GG monogram and the Triple S with the iconic Flora print. Demna’s influence also extended to the accessories and boots featured in many of the looks. The parallelism of the operation conceived by Gucci and Balenciaga with "Fendace" is obligatory, even if what differentiates the Fendi/Versace experiment is the retail distribution in the stores of both brands and the fact that they belong to different Groups (and competitors), respectively the French LVMH and the American Capri Holdings.
But in a world of luxury engaged in a frantic post-COVID recovery and in the continual pursuit of new buyers, especially those belonging to the coveted Gen Z, Maria Grazia Chiuri of Dior is a discordant voice. The designer recently panned collaborations between brands and even the use of celebrities on the catwalk. Despite past collaborations with Nike on Dior trainers, Chiuri disapproves of recent initiatives such as those of Gucci/Balenciaga and Fendi/Versace. “I don’t belong to that generation of designers, I’m very old-fashioned. I have a different way of working,” Chiuri told the press. “I believe that collaborations belong to a younger generation of designers, who have a slightly DJ approach to fashion than mine, in the sense that they sample and mix. At Dior, on the other hand, we try to compose with the dream of making our own music.” This clear-cut stance sounds like a rebuke to those colleagues who, on the other hand, place great emphasis on collabs.
In any case, the phenomenon shows no signs of stopping and seems to be the beginning of a strong dynamic that suggests both a forthcoming proliferation of mega-collaborations among the giants of the fashion industry and a strong return to logomania. Today’s world is increasingly fast-paced and connected, so fashion and trends have to keep up. The word "collaboration" becomes conceptually synonymous with "hybridation.” In the examples cited, joining forces means stimulating creativity and radically redefining the concept of branding, but also creating media hype more easily and expanding the target audience. But will this kind of fashion raised to the nth degree really work?