The Italian maison spent an entire year sourcing for the finest yellow diamonds that evoke the hypnotic hues of a Roman sunset
It’s always a thrilling moment when the high fashion and high jewellery worlds collide, because no two worlds are more perfectly made for each other. At the Fendi FW22 couture show, the maison demonstrated the power of understated luxury through fashion as well as jewellery. Its first look, a roomy but well-tailored double-breasted suit appeared subtle and minimalist, but was made of prized Vicuña—the world’s most expensive wool.
Likewise, the high jewellery seemed uncomplicated, with white diamond fringes that envelope the Fendi monogram studded with yellow diamonds, but they were yellow diamonds for a very specific reason.
Representing the maison’s first foray into the high jewellery space, this necklace embodies the timeless codes of Fendi as well as the modern vision of the creative forces driving it today. Conceptualised and designed by fourth generation member of Fendi’s founding family—and established jewellery entrepreneur in her own right—Delfina Delettrez Fendi, it captures the very essence of Fendi as a fashion house right down to its Roman roots.
Having returned to the business in 2021 as its artistic director of jewellery, Delettrez Fendi brings a new wave of excitement to the Italian fashion house, joining her mother Silvia Venturini Fendi and Fendi artistic director Kim Jones in shaping the vision of the Fendi woman.
“I started working on this parure which marks Fendi’s debut in high jewellery one year ago, and looked into the harmony of themes, materials, and colours,” she relates. “A big challenge was finding the stones with the right intensity of colour and the right shape for an emerald cut.”
Named Flavus, the high jewellery necklace is the star of a parure which includes a pair of earrings and a ring, and all unique pieces and deeply evocative of the maison. Delettrez Fendi continues, “Flavus is the ancient Roman term for yellow, and it represents the Roman roots of the Fendi universe, bringing together past, present, and future.”
From the outset she embarked on a search for exceptional yellow diamonds that would allow her to perfectly capture the Fendi spirit. Not just through the inverted FF monogram attributed to Karl Lagerfeld in 1965, but also to express her own vision of Fendi high jewellery.
“I spent almost a year looking for [yellow diamonds] with a subtle orange cast to emanate the colour of the Roman sunset,” she reveals. “Two elements seemed significant to me to unveil this new story: the diamonds and the yellow. There is nothing more evocative than the diamond, and there is nothing more meaningful at Fendi than the yellow.”
With these sunset-hued stones, Delettrez Fendi paid a modern tribute to the maison but not before imbuing the pieces with her own brand of subversive classicism which blends Roman savoir-faire with a playfulness expressed through dancing gemstones. “Fendi is full of contrasts,” says Delettrez Fendi. “I like the classics to be mixed with some other kind of material. I like materials and shapes that have a strong attitude.”
White and yellow stones cascade from a diamond rivière in a mix of round and baguette solitaires, evoking a spectacular play of colour and light enhanced by the combination of white and yellow gold. The necklace alone comprises over 1,000 stones including one fancy vivid yellow emerald-cut yellow diamond at its heart. Meticulously set, the yellow diamonds appear to be suspended above the white diamonds while remaining perfectly aligned.
Offering a hint of more novelties ahead, she adds, “I can experiment a lot with fashion jewellery and now I also have the honour to do so with high jewellery, as what we have done with Fendi Flavus.”
