Italian Cinema Legend Inspires New Fendi Line

Roman Holiday

Fendi’s forthcoming travel collection conjures a romantic bygone era through an icon of Italian cinema.

The origin of Fendi’s Continental-infused new travel collection (which hits select stores in March and is available to preorder now) began, fittingly, somewhere over the Atlantic: Childhood friends Silvia Venturini Fendi, the brand’s creative director of accessories, and L.A.-based Veronica De Laurentiis, the eldest daughter of Italian actress Silvana Mangano and film producer Dino De Laurentiis, reconnected on a flight from Los Angeles to Rome in 2010.

That high-altitude meeting prompted a trip down sartorial memory lane, during which the pair revisited Mangano’s longstanding relationship with the label—from the faille fabric and leather-trimmed trench coat she wore in the 1974 Luchino Visconti film Gruppo di Famiglia in un Interno (Conversation Piece) to her more personal items, including a vintage Pergamena suitcase toted on globe-circling jaunts. Taking those design moments as a jumping-off point, the resulting capsule collection dedicated to the late screen goddess (whose proceeds go to benefit De Laurentiis’ charity the Silvana Mangano Center) swings from silk and cashmere maxi scarves to elegant leather Boston bags; in short, everything you might need for an Italian getaway—or an Old World-inspired stay closer to home. fendi.com.

By Melissa Goldstein, Edited by Jenny Murray.

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