Oggetto: FENDI
Fonte: The Wall Street Journal
By
Robert Murphy
Jan. 13, 2016 10:57 a.m. ET
Fendi’s New Hotel Embodies the
Spirit of Rome
The Italian fashion house, known for innovative yet
traditional designs in furs, leathers and furniture, is now bringing that
vision to Roman landmarks, including its own Palazzo Fendi
The fashion brand opened a jewel-box-size hotel—and
its largest store ever—on the site of its historic Palazzo Fendi, on Rome’s Via
Condotti.
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An untitled work by Italian artist Nunzio in the
Palazzo Privé. Photography by
Matthieu Salvaing for WSJ. Magazine …
GREEN ROOM | The renovation of Palazzo Fendi included the
transformation of its third floor into a private salon for the use of VIP
clients, dubbed Palazzo Privé. The sitting room of the Palazzo Privé apartment
features a Bruno ...
GOLDEN HOUR | Italian firm Dimore Studio created the design,
which includes this custom screen and daybed upholstered in shaved mink in the
fitting room. Photography by Matthieu
Salvaing for WSJ. Magazine …
BEAM ME UP | A glass-and-bronze elevator is just one dramatic
feature of the boutique, Fendi’s largest yet, designed by Gwenael Nicolas. Photography by Matthieu Salvaing for WSJ.
Magazine …
ROOM SERVICE | Architect Marco Costanzi designed the seven-room
hotel, where each suite is slightly different. Above each bed is a framed panel
of Fendi fur. Photography by Matthieu
Salvaing for WSJ. Magazine …
CITY OF GODS | Dramatically veined red lepanto marble on the walls
in the hotel. Photography by Matthieu
Salvaing for WSJ. Magazine …
A sweeping view of Rome’s Via Condotti as seen from
the hotel. On the roof will be an outpost of London’s Zuma restaurant. Photography by Matthieu Salvaing for WSJ.
Magazine …
Dimore Studio light fixtures in the dining room, with
lacquered vintage chairs. Photography
by Matthieu Salvaing for WSJ. Magazine …
A classically inspired statue Photography by Matthieu Salvaing for WSJ.
Magazine …
EMPIRE STATE | ’We wanted to maintain this old Roman palazzo
spirit,‘ says Dimore Studio’s Britt Moran. A Josef Albers painting hangs behind
a pair of Marco Zanuso 1951 chairs. Photography
by Matthieu Salvaing for WSJ. Magazine …
An untitled work by Italian artist Nunzio in the
Palazzo Privé. Photography by
Matthieu Salvaing for WSJ. Magazine …
GREEN ROOM | The renovation of Palazzo Fendi included the
transformation of its third floor into a private salon for the use of VIP
clients, dubbed Palazzo Privé. The sitting room of the Palazzo Privé apartment
features a Bruno Mathsson lounge chair and club chairs by Axel Vervoordt. It is
separated from the dining area by a custom Dimore Studio lacquered metal and
glass bookcase designed in collaboration with Fendi for Design Miami in 2014. Photography by Matthieu Salvaing for WSJ.
Magazine …
By
Robert Murphy
Jan. 13, 2016 10:57 a.m. ET
NEARLY A CENTURY AGO, enterprising young newlyweds named Adele and Edoardo
Fendi began selling hand-crafted leather goods and furs from a small shop on
Rome’s Via del Plebiscito. Not only did they soon expand their business, but
they had five daughters, Alda, Anna, Carla, Franca and Paola, who grew up
playing in the atelier with accessories instead of toys. Today, the label has
grown to encompass a small empire, producing ready-to-wear that ranges from
haute peasant dresses to futuristic rompers, furs, bags and the Fendi Casa line of furniture. And now the Fendi imprimatur can
be found on some of Rome’s most recognizable structures thanks to a trio of
restoration initiatives.
Unlike most Italian luxury brands, which are based in
the fashion-industrial metropolis of Milan, Fendi has always stayed true to
Rome. This remained the case even after French luxury group LVMH LVMUY 1.49 % acquired
a 51 percent stake in the house in 2001. “Fendi has a very Roman point of
view,” says Pietro Beccari, who was named the brand’s chairman and chief
executive officer in 2012 and is the catalyst for the architectural ventures.
“Beyond Italian, it is Roman. The Roman nuance is important. Rome has an
aesthetic sense linked to beauty.”
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And those ties have only strengthened this winter,
when Fendi opened a jewel-box-size hotel—and its largest store ever—on the site
of its historic Palazzo Fendi, on Rome’s Via Condotti. There, the most ardent
clients can immerse themselves in the house’s signature opulence, from the red
Lepanto marble walls to the Gio Ponti furniture. But first, Fendi had to move
its corporate headquarters from this historic building to another, taking over
the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, which was erected under Fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini’s rule in the EUR district, in the city’s outskirts. Known to
Romans as the Colosseo Quadrato, or Square Coliseum, for the arches that
punctuate its imposing edifice, this rationalist-meets-neoclassical behemoth
had lain in near ruin for 40 years, with no systems for running water,
electricity or heat. (The dictator lost his stranglehold on power before his
architectural masterpiece could ever be used. It was intended for the
international expo of 1942, which was derailed by the outbreak of World War
II.) Where others failed, Fendi succeeded, opening the building as its new
official headquarters last October with much fanfare following an 18-month
renovation by architect Marco Costanzi. The first-floor galleries were thrown
open to the public for the first time, with an exhibition on the history of the
building, including photographs by Karl Lagerfeld and Italian artist Franco
Fontana; a specially commissioned light show by artist Mario Nanni illuminated
the arched facade’s six stories.
BEAM ME UP | A glass-and-bronze elevator is just one
dramatic feature of the boutique, Fendi’s largest yet, designed by Gwenael
Nicolas. Photo: Matthieu Salvaing for
WSJ. Magazine
Nearly simultaneously, the ornate 18th-century Trevi
Fountain reopened after a Fendi-sponsored renovation—involving work costing
some $2 million. Crowds of tourists once again flocked to the landmark to toss
coins over their shoulders into its waters, thus ensuring their return trips to
Rome, according to legend. Besides a pristine facade and an extensive new
lighting system, the fountain now displays the Fendi name on a plaque on one
side.
The challenge then remained to reimagine the Palazzo
Fendi, a 17th-century manse that was modified in the 1900s into a home for the
aristocratic Boncompagni family before becoming Fendi’s headquarters in 2004.
(One wing was sliced off in the 1920s for a city tramway, leaving the marble structure
shaped like an asymmetrical slice of pie with a dramatically porticoed facade,
which Fendi takes as one of its brand hallmarks. “Our aesthetic sense is quite
geometric,” says Beccari, noting his fondness for the unusual edifice and for
the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana.)
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For Palazzo Fendi’s ambitious renovation, which was
completed in just 11 months, Beccari looked to three separate architecture
firms, each of which led distinct areas. Japan-based interiors specialist
Gwenael Nicolas, who has designed several retail spaces for the house, oversaw
the establishment of the massive Fendi store at street level. The space
features a sweeping Lepanto marble staircase and a circular glass-and-bronze
elevator. Also on display are modern and contemporary pieces from the Fendi
collection of art, including a painting by Italian avant-garde artist Agostino
Bonalumi and a mirrored “Moon Ball” sculpture by Swiss conceptualist Not Vital,
as well as a piece by the extravagant Brazilian design duo the Campana
brothers. On the floor above, the influential Milan-based firm Dimore Studio
envisioned Palazzo Privé, a lavish apartment for the use of VIP clients for
private fittings and events, while Costanzi designed the boutique hotel, dubbed
the Fendi Private Suites. Meanwhile, on the roof will be the first Italian
outpost of the London-based Japanese restaurant Zuma. “Rome misses a global
well-known restaurant,” says Beccari. “Zuma brings to Rome a certain caliber
that it lacks completely.”
“This is not just a hotel, a restaurant, an apartment
and a shop,” Beccari continues. “It’s our incarnation of our sense of
aesthetics. It’s also a game changer for us, because I believe that visitors
will discover what we like and they will like it too.”
A sweeping view of Rome’s Via Condotti as seen from
the hotel. On the roof will be an outpost of London’s Zuma restaurant. Photo: Matthieu Salvaing for WSJ. Magazine
The hotel is deliberately intimate, with only seven
rooms, each with a slightly different design that incorporates Fendi Casa
furniture (which is itself a nearly $90 million business, according to
Beccari). As with the boutique below, artwork and statement design pieces are
interwoven throughout, including chandeliers by Lindsey Adelman and a sculpture by Studio
Formafantasma, an Italian design duo made up of Andrea Trimarchi and Simone
Farresin. (Room rates range from $770 to $1,900 per night.) While Costanzi says
he wanted to create a template that could be applied to future Fendi hotels,
Beccari says that at present Fendi has no plans to dig deeper into the
hospitality market. “Obviously, it’s a good way to start, being small,” he
says. “But honestly, this project is more about creating image. We want to make
sure that people leave with a better idea of Fendi than when they arrived.”
Discreet references to house motifs are on display
throughout, including black-and-white photographs of Roman fountains by
designer Karl Lagerfeld, who was first employed by the Fendi family in 1965.
“Karl is fundamental to the brand,” says Beccari of Lagerfeld, who designs fur
and women’s ready-to-wear while also devoting his frenetic creative energy to
Chanel and his own Karl Lagerfeld line. The synergy between the German-born
Lagerfeld and designer Silvia Venturini Fendi (the daughter of Anna Fendi), who
works on accessories, menswear and the Fendi children’s line, is vital, says
Beccari, though neither directly contributed to Fendi’s recent architectural
activities.
“Karl has known Silvia since she was small,” says
Beccari. “Their relationship makes Fendi very special. There is complicity
between the two. Karl has so many projects, and Silvia knows the DNA of the
family. She knows what is Fendi and what isn’t. Both of them know exactly what
belongs to the Fendi aesthetic.”
“The hotel embodies the spirit of Rome, which is very
central to my family and the Fendi brand. For me it is all about that unique
tension between past and future, old and new, history and innovation,” says
Silvia Venturini Fendi. “The house codes carry through to each of our endeavors,
interpreted different ways. You will find various elements in the hotel that
recall certain themes often found on our runway—geometry, dualism, manipulation
of materials, color blocking and, of course, fur.”
Perhaps the most adventurous expression of the Fendi
aesthetic can be found in the extravagant three-room apartment designed by
Dimore Studio’s Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran. Fendi says, “We have a lot of
points in common with Dimore Studio: We share a similar creative approach.”
“We wanted to maintain this old Roman palazzo spirit,”
Moran says of the graciously proportioned floor, which covers 1,080 square
feet. “We like to create a lot of different layers in our spaces, something
that is very rich, not minimal.” To that end, they maintained the original wood
plank floors and the plaster wall work. The latter was painted in an
unexpected hue of verdant blue that Moran himself has trouble naming. “It’s
kind of our trademark to choose an unusual color,” he says.
Guests enter a vestibule where a dramatic chandelier
hangs overhead, like a geometric grid across the ceiling (one of the custom
pieces that Dimore Studio created for Fendi’s booth at 2014’s Design Miami fair).
The apartment’s large dining and living room space is another study in the
unexpected. A towering metal bookcase that features colorful handblown
cathedral glass splits the room in two and accentuates the soaring ceiling.
“Given the clientele, we wanted to give the space a collection of objects that
is international but that will still seem Italian,” says Moran. He and Salci
have peppered the space with classic Italian design works, from a sleek daybed
by modernist Gio Ponti to Murano glass chandeliers by Venini and art by Lucio
Fontana and Nunzio. Adds Moran, “It is a mix of old and new. This apartment is
meant to be a conversation piece.”
Such buzz, it seems, is what Fendi is seeking, yet
shoring up the brand’s Roman heritage with spectacular architectural maneuvers
gives physical substance to its message in a way that ephemeral digital chatter
cannot match. “It’s the incarnation of our aesthetic,” Beccari says. “I believe
that people like to see on Instagram your real value, what you do,” he says. “I
think Instagram and the digital age brought a lot of transparency to the world
of luxury. You cannot hide anymore. People like to plunge into a brand. I
believe offering a lifestyle is offering them the occasion to live the brand to
the fullest extent.
“People like to buy into a set of values a brand
represents,” he adds. “Some people already go home and watch TV on a Fendi
sofa.” Now they can also go to Rome and sleep in a Fendi hotel.