Delfina Delettrez Fendi's Debut in High Jewellery

Fendi's venture into haute jewellery creatively translates the brand's codes.

Daughter of Silvia Venturini Fendi , Delfina Delettrez Fendi is the first member of the fourth generation of the family to have an official role in the brand, when, in 2020, she became, at the insistence of Kim Jones, artistic director of the jewellery, inventing an abstract and decidedly contemporary in which some characteristics of his signature line launched in 2007 can be found, from asymmetry to the passion for the single earring. Even if the codes of the brand, its reference architecture with the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana of the EUR and multiple variations on the logo, replace the more naturalistic and whimsical aspects, the insects, the eye or the mouth homage to Dalí.. Last July in Paris , the Autumn Winter 2023 Couture show marked Delettrez's debut in high jewellery with Fendi, thirty unique pieces divided into three series, Roma Rosa, Gioiello Giallo and Bianco Brillante. A triumph of white and yellow diamonds, sapphires and spinels in infinite shades of green, yellow, orange and pink, and FF logos, both hidden and in plain sight, which take up the cursive Karligraphy created by Karl Lagerfeld in '81. For jewellery with a great visual impact, articulated and light, designed to move and adapt to the lines of the female anatomy. Roma Rosa refers to the marble, mosaics and Roman frescoes evoked by the soft pink fabrics of fashion with three sets of pink sapphires and spinels set with diamonds. Gioiello Giallo celebrates one of the brand's identifying colours with a series of sensational cocktail rings and two sets, one in diamonds with an important Fancy Yellow diamond and one in diamonds and yellow sapphires, and Bianco Brillante is an exercise in virtuosity with two sets of diamonds of various cuts of extraordinary fluidity.

L'OFFICIEL: How does your way of creating a collection for Fendi change compared to your signature line?
DELFINA DELETTREZ FENDI: At Fendi I feel I have to safeguard the codes, the history of my family. It was exciting to have the chance to open a new division that had not yet been touched by the House , plus I have the chance to do what I love in a brand that I can call home. For this collection I wanted to take inspiration from our icons, the Baguette and Peekaboo bags. In the pieces there is what I like to call the ' Peek-a-boo ' effect, with the F appearing almost as a surprise. And the Baguette bag is evoked by the baguette-cut stones that are very present throughout the collection. I wanted to use it as a signature, almost like a place within the logo that gives shape to the Fs.

LO: What characteristics do you think contemporary high jewellery should have?
DDF: It's a different approach than in the past. There is so much incredible historical jewellery, so I realised that to create interesting pieces in this area I would have to talk about today's women with their new way of wearing, considering and buying jewellery. They are objects that have strength, meaning and personality, but with a direct and intimate relationship with the body. They are a deep and personal extension of the woman.

LO: In your work for Fendi do you feel closer to other fashion brands that make jewellery or to pure jewellery houses?
DDF: It's incredible to see how the world of fashion, constantly evolving and extremely dynamic, is in opposition to that of jewellery, regulated by slower dynamics, as if its rhythm were determined by that of nature, by the cycle of stones. Creativity has no limits and cannot be limited to certain categories: I wanted to apply the rules of fashion to a world that sometimes appears traditional and static.

LO: What inspires you?
DDF: I am constantly inspired by women. Behind the collection there is the desire to reinterpret aesthetic codes by adapting them to precious stones and their characteristics. Many elements recall empty and full volumes, the F becomes rhythmic and repeats itself like the arches of the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, approaching the idea of a precise architecture.

LOI: Your favorite stone?
DDF: When I was born, my grandmother, perhaps moved by intuition, or by a strange twist of fate, gave me an aquamarine. I like to think that it was some sort of initiation: a little girl named Delfina, with a future in jewellery, receiving a stone like aquamarine! I would say that this was the first, almost unconscious memory or influence that jewellery had on me.