Excellence Magazine has met Anna Venturini Fendi to know her contemporary project after all the years she dedicated to fashion, to the creation of the collections and to Fendi, Italian brand of excellence, today LVMH proprietary brand.
When did you create your brand AVF, Anna Venturini Fendi? With what philosophy?
After I sold the family business to LVMH group and left my place to my daughter Silvia, I decided to start a new working path and to dedicate myself to my great passion for hospitality and interior design. It has been a rebirth, to me, starting and dealing with a new reality. I must confess that it hasn’t been easy, but enthusiasm and passion helped me to go further and to create AFV. The main philosophy and mission of the brand are to promote beauty and made in Italy in the world. Villa Laetitia’s interiors, my selection of wines, the collection of the Art of the Table and, last but not least, the boat GT370 Invictus, are all examples of my way to conceive beauty, to create objects that can give pleasure and joy.
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Where does your eclecticism originate? What is your source of inspiration?
I have always been creative, since I was a child. Among the five sisters, I was the one who invented games and involved the others. I have done this throughout my life and in my job. If something arouses enthusiasm in me, I throw myself body and soul. I love to overcome limits, to handle new challenges and to deepen my knowledge. I had the chance to be born in Rome, a city that is, and has, everything. Any corner inspired me. I am a lover and a collector of art. Old masters taught me the importance of rigour, line and colour. I was lucky to work hard in the cinema with Oscar winners, like the costume designer Piero Tosi, who was considerable, and with considerable directors, learning the importance of details. I am an enthusiast and I believe I can affirm that my greatest source of inespiration is life itself. I have a beautiful family, I have the job I’ve always dreamt of and loved and I am surrounded by beauty. What more could I ask?
How is the world of luxury changing?
The world of luxury is changing through habits and needs and we must anticipate the trends of the market. Luxury must keep a common denominator, which is unquestionable for me. Luxury must be the exaltation of beauty, and not the display of richness for itself. Coco Chanel used to say: “I love luxury. And luxury lies not in richness and ornateness, but in the absence of vulgarity. Vulgarity is the ugliest word in our language. I stay in the game to fight it.” I believe that her words suit my thinking perfectly.
What is the most private luxury of yours?
There are various kinds of luxury, the luxury of space, of reception, of goodwill. There is a luxury in humility, a very aristocratic feeling. There is luxury in knowing how to find that richness that only the tolerant and the merciful can feel in work, life, amusement and friendship. This is what luxury is to me.
What do you think about contemporary fashion?
Everyone knows that fashion is a mirror of our times and maybe this is the reason why it is also a bit bizarre. I think that the young are increasingly orienting their way of life towards love for nature in general, life in the open air, country and environmental protection. This is what the new luxury will be. And will make lines, colours and textile adapt to this new trend. At present, I adore to wear lines of trend, but more inspired to masculine fashion and I always give a strong importance to details and accessories.
Interior design, décor, hotellerie, art de la table, accessories, wines. Your creativity is limitless: what is your newest project?
My creativity never gives up. It’s my oxygen. If it stopped, I would die. I have just concluded a very fine project, realized together with a very talented young designer, Christian Grande. We met by chance in Rome in my boutique hotel, Villa Laetitia, and I was really impressed by his drawings. A week afterwards, we were already at work. Christian asked me to design the interiors of a boat awarded for exterior design with the Best of Boat in Berlin, at the end of 2017. It has been a beautiful, intense and very amusing experience. We have just presented it and the reaction of the press and the clientele was unexpected. To furnish this boat I moved from the idea of travel. I was inspired by the old chests in parchment and Russia leather. Following a well-defined colour line and proposing materials rather unusual in the yachting world, I tried to furnish this little jewel of the sea in an unique and strongly personal way. I always adored the boats with these dimensions, because they give me a sense of intimacy, adventure and measure. With Christian Grande, we both tried to study every single detail and to create something fine and very functional.
