AOC loves Paris and the south of France. But we’ve been saying for many months now that it’s an Italian moment, and nothing — not even the king of cashmere’s current Italian sweatshop scandal — will dampen AOC’s love affair with la dolce vita.

Fendi’s fall-winter 2025 campaign film begins with a visual dose of sophisticated retro nostalgia, peppered with modern reinvention. In speaking with WWD about the fall-winter 2025 collection, Silvia Venturini Fendi, whose title is artistic director of accessories and menswear collections, stressed the reality that the fall 2025 collection presents “a contemporary and comprehensive vision of the brand”.

She pointed out that “there is absolutely nothing nostalgic” about the collection, and that the designer was not revisiting previous designs. “It’s all new,” she said. “There is nothing better than celebrating the past through the present and the future. If I had to name this collection, it would be flashback and fast forward, three Fs,” she said, in a re-elaboration of the signature FF logo.

Fendi is also aiming to convey this modern message with ancient roots with the inauguration of its new Palazzo at the end of September 2025, a new sprawling flagship on Milan’s Via Montenapoleone.

Cultivating Fendi’s Roman History

The brand is cultivating its Roman history and modern civic responsibilities that resulted in multiple renovations of important Roman landmarks. They include the truly iconic:

1] Trevi Fountain, completed in 2015; 2] the Temple of Venus and Rome concluded in 2021; [3] "Fendi for Fountains" Project: Fendi's investment in this project extends beyond the Trevi Fountain to include the restoration of other fountains in Rome, such as the "Four Fountains" complex and the fountains del Gianicolo, del Mosè, del Ninfeo del Pincio, and del Peschiera; [4] Villa Medici: six rooms restored in 2022; and [5] Grotto of Diana at Villa d'Este: Fendi has committed to assisting with the restoration of the Grotto of Diana at this UNESCO World Heritage Site near Rome.

Anne Is Swept Away

Depending on your age, the soundtrack will completely sweep you away. OMG! Barry White.

If you have lived a privileged life resulting from family heritage — or are a working girl who made good and led a privileged life based on your smarts — and you regularly kissed the ground landing in Italia, you will be swooning. Personally, Anne is destroyed with this campaign video.

Captured by legendary photographer Steven Meisel [IG], the visuals celebrate Fendi’s 100th anniversary year with elegance and a strong dose of Roman drama. It’s heavy on the drama part if you turn on the music. My friends, we return to a time when you could say you were a woman and not worry about being thrown out of the Democratic party for being a bigot.

In fact, Sophia Loren would have picked up a champagne glass and thrown it at your head for such insolence to WOMEN! You would have returned to your hotel and found your luggage in the lobby, after she checked you out of the hotel, with a love note telling you to never return to Rome again. Not ever.

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In true Roman hospitality, she had her chauffeur waiting to take you to the airport while the concierge handed you your passport from the hotel safe with a big message stamped on the front page: no longer welcome in Rome. Those were the days.

The campaign stars Ajus Samuel, Finn Collins, Libby Taverner, Liu Wen, Lulu Tenney, Nonso Ojukwu, Sang Woo Kim, Sora Choi and Vittoria Ceretti, with styling by Charlotte Stockdale. Hair by Guido Palau; makeup by Pat McGrath, set design by Mary Howard

There has always been a great confidence about the Fendi women. AOC narrated this history in last week’s Jewelry News post on Delfina Delettrez Fendi’s ‘Radidi Romane’ high jewelry collection.

When the subject is Fendi, AOC’s strong instincts are: The Best Is Yet to Come!