Fendi

When Adele Casagrande opened a small leather goods shop in Rome with her brother in 1918, she never could’ve imagined she had planted the seed for one of the most storied luxury houses in the world. Following her marriage to Edoardo Fendi, in 1925 the husband and wife duo went into business together and changed the name to Fendi, launching a family empire that is still going strong today.

The Fendis had five daughters: Paola, Franca, Alda, Anna, and Carla, who would eventually take over the business. In 1965 they made the pivotal decision to hire a young Karl Lagerfeld as creative director—who quickly proved his worth by designing the iconic double-F logo, which stands for “Fun Fur”—and eventually launched ready-to-wear for the label in 1977. In 1992, Silvia Venturini Fendi, Anna’s daughter, was named artistic director of accessories and menswear, and in 1997 she cemented her place in the fashion pantheon when she introduced the Fendi Baguette bag, one of the decade’s It-bags, popularized by Sarah Jessica Parker on Sex and the City. In 2001, LVMH acquired a majority stake in Fendi, but that was not the end of the family business—Carla stayed on as honorary president until her death in 2017, and in 2020 Delfina Delettrez Fendi, Venturini Fendi’s daughter, was brought on as artistic director of high jewelry.

When Lagerfeld passed away in 2019, having spent 54 years at the helm, the English designer Kim Jones, one of fashion’s most influential designers thanks to his jobs at Louis Vuitton and Dior Men, was named as his successor. Jones was in charge of womenswear and couture and spearheaded groundbreaking collaborations with Marc Jacobs, Versace, and Tiffany Co. He announced he would be stepping down from his role in late 2024 with Venturini Fendi overseeing all the collections—including a beautiful co-ed outing shown for the brand’s centennial that won’t soon be forgotten.