Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi
The Fendis closed down the Paris Haute Couture shows last night with a three-part party. First up, a celebration of the Roman label’s new 51 Avenue Montaigne flagship, twice the size of its previous store across the street. After ogling Sharon Stone ogling the furs, guests were ferried by Fendi shuttle buses down to the Seine, where the brand, which is sponsoring the restoration of Rome’s Trevi Fountain, was hosting a private viewing of Karl Lagerfeld’s new photography exhibition. Housed in five domes along the river, The Glory of Water showcases fifty daguerreotypes and fifty platinotypes the designer took of the Italian capital’s many fountains.
Leave it to Lagerfeld to stage the largest exhibit of daguerreotypes the world has ever seen, but the real highlight of the evening may have been the screening of the short movie L’Histoire d’Eau, which the designer made with the Fendi sisters in 1977 to present his first ready-to-wear collection for the house. Digitally restored, the eighteen-minute clip stars Suzy Dyson as a young woman on vacation in Rome, bathing La Dolce Vita-style in the fountains, and lunching chez Fendi. A teenaged Silvia Venturini Fendi makes a cameo. The night ended with dinner in the gardens of the Petit Palais. As the second-course plates were being cleared, Anita Ekberg’s voice came over the loudspeakers. “Marcello, come here, hurry up,” she called. Natalia Vodianova and the Arnaults sat at the head table with Lagerfeld. They had the best seats in the house for the fountain animation that followed.
