HEALTH+BEAUTY
How does Fendi, one of fashion’s most iconic dynasties, launch fragrance ? With a celebration of all things family and Italian finds Jane McFarland
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF FENDI. PORTRAIT: BRETT LLOYD
WITH THOUSANDS of fragrances on the market, how to capture the senses? For fashion house Fendi, which launched a complete set of perfumes this month, it wasn’t about bottling just one moment, but seven. The seven-piece range, which aims to pay tribute to the company’s history (it’ll celebrate its centenary next year) and key members of the extended Fendi clan, from the founder to its new generations, includes scents such as Perché No, with notes of sandalwood and pink pepper, as well as Casa Grande, combining leather and vanilla.
One of Italy’s oldest fashion dynasties, the storied fashion house is well-versed in selling a lifestyle – it’s Rome, it’s leather, it’s the Baguette. How to encapsulate that in a series of scents? Go back to the beginning – la famiglia. Each smell is inspired by a different member of the well-heeled brood: the matriarch, Adele Casagrande Fendi, who founded the label in 1925; her daughter Anna; her grand-daughter Silvia, the current artistic director of accessories and menswear; and Silvia’s two daughters Leonetta and Delfina; Delfina’s twins, Tazio and Dardo; and honorary family member and British designer Kim Jones, the fashion house’s artistic director.
Delfina, fourth-generation member of the dynasty, is dressed in an off-theshoulder knitted blue Fendi dress with cat’s-eye white sunglasses when we meet on the rooftop of Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, Fendi’s Roman headquarters. Her eyes are rimmed with metallic blue liner and, on one ear, a cascading drop-diamond cuff nods to her reputation as one of the most exciting jewellery designers of the moment. By both name and nature, Delfina is fashion; she walked in her first Fendi show aged five and grew up in and out of the studio. ‘When you are born and raised in such a family, there is no distinction between work and family.’ She launched her own brand in 2007, aged 19, before joining Fendi in 2020 as artistic director of jewellery. Perfume, however, is new territory for her.
‘I’ve never used a fragrance in my life,’ she exclaims. ‘No one believes me, but I never resonated with anything out there. I love everything that is very natural and I always look for an individual streak; something that is truly mine. So I waited 36 years for a bespoke, couture signature scent,’ she laughs. ‘It was like working on the most gigantic and invisible piece of jewellery because the process is very similar and it could go on forever. Someone has to stop you.’
In Delfina’s case, that someone was Quentin Bisch – one of the three perfumers drafted
