His second such collection for Fendi was captured in an emotive film, which saw the likes of Kate Moss, Christy Turlington, and Amber Valletta gaze enigmatically into the camera as they wafted around a Roman theater set in dresses evocative of the stone and statues of the Eternal City.
In the age of social media when big, beautiful dresses go viral, the direction Jones is setting for Fendi epitomizes a popular understanding of haute couture as something the eye can easily identify: bold ballroom silhouettes, sumptuous surface decoration, and famous faces.
Watching it unfold, it feels like a formative process, as if all that intarsia and all those embroideries have been locked inside him for so long, waiting for the day when they could burst out into bona fide couture.
The fabrics and textures were informed by the buildings and pavements of Rome, some employed in statuesque lines that underscored the theme.
Most compelling were the silhouettes that really took form, like the hypnotizing construction of a mosaic bolero jacket that resculpted the body through the volume-specific grammar of haute couture, or the dress worn by Mica Argañaraz, which demonstrated a similar idea in flou.
“I’ve only really scratched the surface, but we’ve already planned what we’re doing for the next couture,” he teased, hinting at a physical runway show in Paris.
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