MADE IN ITALY

from Luxury London Magazine Spring 2022

JEWELLERY NEWS

COURTESY OF FENDI

Cultural superpower Italy has long been an epicentre of art, architecture and design. From the domes and arches of ancient Rome, to the 20th century maisons that dominate Milan Fashion Week, ‘la bella figura’, or ‘good appearance’, is part of the national DNA – an aesthetic history that Fendi seeks to champion and sustain.

The Roman brand has engaged in various patronage activities over the years, which support, promote and preserve Italian excellence, including working on the restoration of the Trevi Fountain. In 2015, Fendi chose the neoclassical Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (built in 1938) as its European headquarters, opening it to the public for exhibitions and installations thereafter. Then, in 2020, came the label’s most ambitious project yet: the restoration of the Temple of Venus and Rome.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, Emperor Hadrian’s allegiance to Rome was being called into question. To dispel suspicions, he decided to build a temple to honour the goddesses Roma – the personification of the Roman state – and Venus, who was believed to be the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, a survivor of the fall of Troy who had fled to Italy.

The temple was to be the largest ever built in the city, erected between the Forum and the Colosseum. Hadrian even had the Neronian Colossus, a 30-metre bronze statue of the Emperor Nero, removed to make way, an endeavour for which he deployed 24 elephants.

The monument was architecturally astounding. It’s defining feature was two adjoining chambers containing statues of the deities; elsewhere, stuccos were covered in gold leaf and intricate busts peered out of niches. The mauve tint of the porphyry columns is still observable today – back then, it would have contrasted with green cipollino marble.

Over the centuries, the temple underwent considerable despoliation. It was damaged by a fire in 307AD, and thereafter, to help finance the persecution of pagans, as with many Roman buildings, was targeted for its rich materials. In 625, Pope Honorius received special dispensation to strip the bronze roof tiles for the adornment of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

Fendi has poured some £2.1 million into undoing some of the damage. The restoration, which ended in July 2021, aimed to enhance everything from the roofing to the flooring, as well as improving accessibility with a lift.

While much of the Temple of Venus and Rome has been lost to time, the project coordinators landed on the innovative solution of using beams of light to ‘suggest’ certain elements, including the columns, goddess statues and ceiling coffers. Through a play of light and shadow, it is intended that visitors will be able to imagine the temple as it was in the time of Hadrian.

In the words of Silvia Venturini Fendi, artistic director for accessories and menswear, and spokesperson for the project, when you visit the structure, “you can feel it in the air, and as the sun goes down… on the edge of the Velia Hill in the evening, there’s a moment where time stops and the buzz of modern life fades into the background’.

THE TEMPLE OF VENUS AND ROME WAS ONE OF THE LARGEST MONUMENTS IN ITALY’S ANCIENT CITY. FENDI, ANOTHER EXEMPLAR OF ITALIAN CRAFTSMANSHIP, HAS RECENTLY FINISHED RESTORING IT

Words: Anna Solomon

It is hoped that visitors will be able to imagine the temple as it was in the time of Hadrian

THE LADY DIOR BAG, A LABEL HALLMARK NAMED AFTER PRINCESS DIANA, IS CONSTANTLY FINDING WAYS TO RENEW ITS CULT STATUS Words: Anna SolomonShe’s a LADY

What is it about a designer handbag that inspires reverence? Why does a piece of stitched-together leather send our pleasure receptors into overdrive?

There’s no denying that a well-made handbag is a thing of beauty: supple calfskin, immaculate topstitching, polished accents… But it’s also about the care that goes into its creation. It hasn’t come off a conveyor belt, having been produced at rock bottom prices. The goal isn’t profit, it’s pride. Legacy. The right to be described as iconic. And if there’s one bag that has earned that right, it’s the Lady Dior.

The Lady Dior bag presents a square silhouette, rounded handle, and the maison’s signature ‘cannage’ quilting, said to be inspired by the chairs used at Christian Dior’s first show in 1947. It comes in lollipop shades, accented by gold hardware and embellished with a charm – a nod to the talismans that Dior, a superstitious man, kept on him at all times. Each bag takes eight hours and seven craftsmen to make, consisting of 144 parts, from hand-stretched lambskin to tiny metal feet and eyelets.

The mythology around the Lady Dior also comes from its illustrious history. Designed in 1995 by Dior’s successor, Gianfranco Ferré, it was initially named ‘Chouchou’, which is French for ‘favourite’. Then, the following year, France’s then-First Lady, Bernadette Chirac, bought the bag as a gift for Princess Diana. She loved it so much that she ordered it in every colour, and so, the ‘Lady Dior’ was named after its most famous fan.

Since achieving cult status in the 90s, the bag has gone through numerous iterations, from John Galliano’s leopardprint version in 1999 to the Lady D-Lite – a 2020 embroidered design by Maria Grazia Chiuri. The D-Lite is emblazoned with the ‘Christian Dior’ signature and available in ‘Toile de Jouy’ and ‘Mizza’ motifs, as well as timeless shades of black, grey and nude.

But it’s not just creative directors that get to put their stamp on the Lady Dior. Since 2016, Dior has been hosting Dior Lady Art, a project that recruits artists to imbue the bag with their own designs. Beautiful things happen when artistic talent and haute couture collide – and the results are available as limited editions in select boutiques.

For the sixth edition of Dior Lady Art, the bag has been gilded with hieroglyphics, marbled via impasto, and adorned by a bee-motif appliqué. One of the artists, Genieve Figgis (left), hijacks 18th-century aesthetics for her hand-painted creations.

Growing up, Figgis would use her sewing machine to make handbags from denim jeans, which she would pair with her father’s blazers and a pair of Dr. Martens. When she became an artist, she renovated an old Georgian house in County Wicklow, Ireland, where she paints in the company of her two dogs. “It’s very relaxing – I’m surrounded by my books, I’ve decorated and installed interiors myself and the garden is filled with birds,” she says.

Among books and birds, Figgis echoes the works of James Ensor, François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, but as though they were “melting” or “dissolving”. The result is unsettlingly beautiful.

For the Dior Lady Art project, Figgis has transposed tiger and cat motifs, deformed by pearl embroidery, onto grape leather. Elsewhere, a distorted tableau of figures and fauna form a carnivalesque scene: “I wanted the bag to represent a happy collaboration with nature – humans and animals living in peace and harmony.”

The Lady Dior has achieved idol status already. But the French maison isn’t in the business of sitting on its laurels, instead constantly seeking to innovate, excel and surprise – much like the bag’s namesake.