Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

How Do You Say Fendace? Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and More Step Out in Versace and Fendi’s Runway Collaboration

How Do You Say Fendace? Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and More Step Out in Versace and Fendi’s Runway Collaboration

Donatella Versace and Kim Jones and Silvia Fenturini of Fendi join forces for an unprecedented collaboration they're calling Fendace.

Many extraordinary shows have happened in the courtyard of the Versace family palazzo on Via Gesu, but tonight’s was something entirely new-and in fashion, that’s very extraordinary indeed. What went down is that Kim Jones and Silvia Venturini Fendi of Fendi and Donatella Versace of Versace swapped houses-apparently for one night only-to design 25 looks for their erstwhile rivals. The result was a fabulous fashion Frankenstein christened Fendace, and it was modeled by a cast you suspect will go down as by far this season’s most spectacular.

And yet as mind-blowing as the casting was-and it was-arguably the most thrillingly unprecedented moment of all happened shortly after Kate Moss and Amber Valletta had walked together and Kim Jones had popped out to take a bow for his part in designing the first 25 looks. Suddenly the Medusa faced panels embedded in the foliage walls of the fashion space rotated to reveal the double-F logo designed by Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi. In this citadel of Versaciness, that felt almost shockingly radical.

In the love-crush backstage afterwards the audience that included Elizabeth Hurley, her son Damian, and Dua Lipa collided with the cast. The vibe was, as Amanda Harlech so aptly put it, “hallucinatory.” Had we really just seen Donatella Versace take a bow for designing a Fendi collection-ok, Fendace-that closed with Naomi Campbell? Was that really Moss dancing with Shalom Harlow for the final lineup alongside Karen Elson, Kristen McMenamy, and contemporary up-and-comers including Gigi Hadid, Adut Akech, Emily Ratajkowski, Vittoria Ceretti, and, oh yes, young Lila Moss Hack?

In the thick of that crush was Kim Jones, who explained how the Fendace Frankenstein was first formulated. “In February after the ready-to-wear show we came to dinner here with Donatella. Silvia and Donatella got on really well, and we thought it would be nice to have some fun. It was a design-off: we designed Versace and she designed Fendi. Remember these two houses are not in the same group: we’ve just done it as friends, and out of respect for each other. It’s never been planned as a commercial thing.”

Having the chance to get his hands on the Versace archive, he added: “was mind-blowing. There are things I’d never had the chance to see with my own eyes. And when Donatella went to the Fendi archive she picked out things from the same period we were looking at, by chance. Also Donatella has never designed for another brand, and neither has Silvia so it was very interesting to see. But the reasons behind it were straightforward: we wanted to do something that was optimistic and fun as we return to live shows. And we wanted to do it because we love each other.”

As Jones was hinting, the most notable recent comparable fashion ‘contamination,’ between Balenciaga and Gucci, was indeed a project comprising two parts of a greater corporate whole. The most committed contaminator in fashion, meanwhile, is probably Moncler through its Genius project: however in this it acts more as curator more than co-creator. This was something both more radical and more daringly democratic: a meeting of three disparate design minds, all at the highest echelons of fashion, and all acting with an in-this-business all-too-rare creative humility in allowing one another free rein to reinterpret each other’s IP. It also had a heritage house logic to it, in that Gianni Versace and Karl Lagerfeld were both extremely friendly rivals. What remained unclear as the post-show party that promised to be an all-nighter began is whether this Fendace capsule is a one-off-or whether there might be a return round, maybe hosted by Fendi, next season. Tonight would be hard to top.


Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×