The Miami Design District’s Moore building has been taken over (currently through Christmas) by F Factory, a “limited edition retail and cultural environment.” Participating on the first floor during Design Miami with a window display and unique boutique experience was Fendi who had artisans from Italy and from Miami’s Design and Architecture Senior High (DASH) hand stitching bags on site as well as three needle-point panels designed by graffiti artist Andre. Fendi has collaborated with Design Miami/ for two years (earlier this year with the hit, Craft Punk) so we sat down with Silvia Venutrini Fendi last week to talk about the collaboration.
WHITEWALL: Your grandfather and grandmother founded Fendi.
SILVIA VENTURINI FENDI: Mainly my grandmother because her family was a family of leather goods makers. They were in Florence and she moved to Rome and started a store in 1925.
WW: So you grew up around that and are now the only remaining Fendi family member to still work within the company. Did you always know you wanted to be involved?
SVF: Yes, without really knowing, but I remember when I was very little I would always find excuses to go over to the studio, to the atelier where my mother worked to see what was happening. I was much more interested by the action there than to play with my sisters at all, or friends, or to study. Of my generation, we are 11 (we are 3 sisters and then 7 cousins) but I was the only one who was really there almost daily. I went there to do my homework in the atelier upstairs where the women were making the clothes and it was fantastic.
WW: Being around the atelier, spending so much time there, did you develop an appreciation for craftsman and handmade quality?
SVF: Yes because I know the value of that. Every time I enter an atelier, I see these people, I understand that they are the real value of the company; one of the biggest values. With them I have a very easy relationship. I feel like one of them. This is the best part of my work. If you ask me if I want to go to a party or to the atelier, I will tell you that I’m staying in the atelier [laughs].
WW: At the F Factory in the Design District we get to see these bags being made. Where did the idea come from?
SVF: The idea came together with Ambra [Medda] because we started last year to work with Design Miami/Basel on the performances. We did performances in Milano where the designers showed the creation of their designs – Craft Punk. So this time we wanted to show our craft punk [laughs]. The worlds of fashion and design are not so different. What you have there at F Factory are prototypes, one of a kind pieces, and we want to show that artisans are a big value and can be compared to artists sometimes.
WW: From the couple days it’s been open what kind of response have you seen?
SVF: People are very interested, surprised. It’s not only our own tradition but we mix it with the young students from DASH that are embroidering and its nice to show that an artisan can be a profession of value.
WW: How did the relationship with DASH come about and why was it important for you to bring in these young designers?
SVF: We like to mix the past and the future. They are our future, you build your future on past experiences so its nice to se these young fashionable people doing this action that was made normally by, well you have a vision of old ladies doing that. And they are doing it on graffiti sprayed by Andre so it’s total mix of old and new.
WW: How did you choose Andre?
SVF: We know him, he is so well known, and he made a baguette for us when he made a baguette by different artists so we had a relationship with him already.
WW: Have you had a chance to go to any of the fairs yet?
SVF: Yes, of course.
WW: Are you looking for a future collaborator?
SVF: Yes, I’ve already seen something that interests me. I’ve seen something inspiring by an artist I was looking at already but I had a confirmation last night. It’s fantastic.
