Teased on the runway of the FENDI Men’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection by Silvia Venturini Fendi, the house has finally revealed a range of exclusive accessories designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Kuma applies ancient Japanese craftsmanship and raw natural materials in a concise focus on the FENDI Peekaboo bag, the Baguette Soft Trunk, and the Flow Sneakers. 

The collaborative reimagination of FENDI icons comes as a part of the recently unveiled FENDI Factory. FENDI Factory, which was shown by the label with the collection, acts as a hub for innovation and collaboration for the artisanal talents of the future, hidden in the rolling green hills of Capannuccia. Through this new initiative, FENDI presents an exclusive series of accessories made in collaboration with the famed Japanese architect. Celebrated worldwide for his naturalist approach to built environments, Kuma uses rigorous design principles and an experimental approach to natural materials in his work. With a dedication to craftsmanship that aligns with FEDI’s approach to material innovation, research and development, Kuma and FENDI came together to create the newest architectural accessories. 

“His work mixes the future with his roots in a very essential way,” explains Silvia Venturini Fendi, Artistic Director of Accessories and Menswear. I feel a sense of kinship with his Japanese approach to savoir-faire—I think it is such a strong shared value between Japan and Italy.”

In imitation of the age-old hand-papermaking tradition, Kuma works with waranshi–a hybrid washi-paper-making style using cotton and tree bark fibers– as the primary intervention across each design. The resulting dry, soft, textural fabric creates a strong base with an imperfect facade, beautifully applied across the Peekaboo, Baguette Soft Trunk, and Flow sneaker FENDI accessories. A second Peekaboo style is constructed with pale birch bark and a Tuscan Olivewood internal frame in a subtle nod to the FENDI Pequin stripe. In other designs, Kuma uses yatra ami weaving, or the irregular bamboo stand plaiting technique that creates strong woven styles, like in the internal frame of the Peekaboo. Yatra ami also inspired the 3D-printed sole on the FENDI Flow sneaker with a recycled poly-cotton knit or waranshi upper sole. A re-imagined lace and zipped upper, a cork insole, and a molded FF sole in undyed, bio-based EVA complete the architectural FENDI Flow.

“Nature and craft have always been at the center of my work as an architect and a designer. When FENDI asked me to reflect on their bags and shoes, I thought of them like small architectural projects on a human scale,” explains Kengo Kuma. “I have transformed some of Silvia Venturini Fendi’s signature men’s designs with traditional Japanese techniques and materials, showing our shared passion for nature, lightness, and innovative design.”

In the never-ending search for innovation and harmonious conversation between man and nature, FENDI x Kengo Kuma represents the exchange between creative disciplines and fuses past and present through expressive material possibilities. 

“Our partnership with Kengo Kuma creates not only a dialogue between FENDI and architecture, but a conversation with another designer and their choice of artisans and materials,” elaborates Venturini Fendi. “It is important that FENDI’s artistic projects continue to grow outside of Italy, as we recognize that creativity at scale is never the work of one person: it’s a cooperation between hands and minds, and different talents and resources from around the world.”