From far away the decorative motif on a leather retro tracksuit jacket on Fendi's S/S18 menswear runway looked like a sort of space rocket dynamically flying in the sky. Yet, close up, the futuristic object revealed itself for what it actually was, a rather ordinary rotatory corkscrew bottle opener, even though it wasn't just anybody's bottle openere, it was indeed Sue Tilley's.
Friend to and biographer of performance artist Leigh Bowery, Sue Tilley became a muse to painter Lucian Freud for whom she posed over four years in the early 1990s.
Widely known as "Big Sue", Tilley always worked at a London jobcentre (Lucian Freud's 1995 oil painting was indeed entitled "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping"), until recently. After retiring "Big Sue" turned to art, becoming and illustrator, while trying to save money to open a tearoom on the Isle of Wight.
Then, Fendi happened: the brand's menswear stylist and Tilley friend Julian Ganio was in love with her illustrations and put her in touch with Silvia Venturini Fendi.
Tilley was therefore commissioned a series of illustrations of mundane, household objects for a collection that mainly celebrated the normality of boring office life - with a twist.
The set was a recreation of Fendi's headquarter in Rome's Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana and Silvia Venturini Fendi opened the show with sensible clothes such as suede anoraks and jackets, followed by a series of suits, shirts, shorts, and outerwear in sheer checked parachute silks.
One of the icons on Fendi's mood board was Danny Dyer in Fila shorts in The Business, another Christian Bale in suspenders in American Psycho, and Venturini Fendi remixed their attire to produce what she called the "Skype look", that is well dressed to the waist and barely presentable from down under - that's the mink blazer and the suede tracksuit tops matched with shorts explained.
Tilley's illustrations of an Andy Warhol for the Velvet Underground-echoing banana skin (according to Tilley, Venturini Fendi ate a banana, then sent her an image of the banana skin for inspiration), her own bottle opener, keys, a Martini glass, bathroom taps and a cup of tea (maybe an auspicious illustration inspired by Tilley's dream of owning her tearoom) became prints on T-shirts and silk shirts (in some cases slightly reminiscent of the colourful prints of beloved Italian brand Naj-Oleari), they were transformed into leather charms swinging from bags and trousers, reproduced on tote bags or reinvented as lapel pins.
There is actually an intriguing story behind one of Tilley's objects - a lamp - featured on a sweater and on a few jackets: the cheap vintage looking lamp comes indeed from Tilley's new flat, but it is not brand new, it was indeed left behind by the previous owner that Tilley seemed to dislike as well.
Maybe with this collection and with its pastel pinks and naive illustrations, Venturini Fendi wanted to escape from the boredom of corporate groups (Demna Gvasalia was also inspired by this theme for his Balenciaga's A/W 17 collection) or, maybe, like Miuccia Prada, she was looking for the human side in the inhuman rhythms characterising many businesses. Whatever was her final aim, the idea of involving Tilley in this collection was intriguing.
Tilley could be seen indeed as a counterculture figure, but she is also a woman who until recently had a very ordinary job as well, miles away from the glamorous Millennials many brands - including Dolce & Gabbana and, well, Fendi (the latter is clearly trying to attract a new and younger arty consumer) - are running after. In a nutshell, there are intriguing inspirations for fashion collections all over the place and you don't necessarily need to pick an artist with a huge Instagram following just because it is cool to do so.
Fendi's show was a bit overshadowed by the news of the death of Carla, Silvia Venturini Fendi's aunt and one of the original five sisters behind the house founded in 1925 by Edoardo Fendi and Adele Casagrande.
Apart from being honorary president of the Fendi Group, Carla Fendi, 80, had launched a foundation in her name in 2007 to support culture, arts, crafts and restoration projects (she considered herself a patron of the arts and not a mere sponsor). Carla would have probably approved of this collaboration with Tilley.
In the meantime, Italian film production house First Sun, co-founded by Silvia Venturini Fendi, is currently working on a new verision of Dario Argento's cult film Suspiria (they acquired the rights in 2007), so, who knows, there may be more jobs for Tilley, maybe as a set designer?
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