Luca Guadagnino’s Fendi Collaboration Could Work for the Call Me by Your Name Sequel
In the past year, Luca Guadagnino has designed the interior of a sumptuous Lake Como home for the founder of Yoox Net-a-Porter and his partner, directed a remake of fashion’s favorite horror film, and shot a fashion editorial for this very magazine—so it was only a matter of time before his work started appearing on the runway too. For Fendi’s spring 2020 men’s-wear collection, which debuted in Milan on Monday, Silvia Venturini Fendi selected Guadagnino, a longtime friend and professional collaborator, to design a print that would go on to appear on sheer blouses, bucket hats, tote bags, and shorts.
Guadagnino drew the botanical print by hand on his iPad while making Suspiria, according to WWD. “I fantasized about my beloved idea of gardening and the outdoors. It was a way out for me. I was trying to make myself feel lighter,” he told the reviewer Samantha Conti. “Suspiria was done in muted colors—actually no colors—and is very dark and these are very garish, bright prints.” The resulting garden-appropriate wardrobe (including some bags shaped like watering cans) wouldn’t be out of place on the set of the Call Me by Your Name sequel.
The director was a natural fit for Fendi’s latest high-profile collaboration, considering Guadagnino and Venturini Fendi go way back. In 2007, they founded a production company together, First Sun, which produced Guadagnino’s 2009 drama, I Am Love; Guadagnino has also directed videos for the brand, as well as for other Italian designers including Ermenegildo Zegna, Giorgio Armani, and Salvatore Ferragamo.
Ryuichi Sakamoto, the acclaimed Japanese composer and musician, wrote the music for the Fendi show—yet another instance in which Guadagnino bridged the film and fashion worlds. Sakamoto’s “M.A.Y. in the Backyard” and “Germination” (botanical!) appeared in Call Me by Your Name, and the composer and director went on to work with Valentino on a short. Earlier this year, Guadagnino’s 35-minute short film The Staggering Girl, starring Julianne Moore and made in collaboration with the Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival. It was inspired by the Valentino spring 2018 show (and, naturally, featured a lot of Valentino looks), which Guadagnino attended: “When I see these things, I said, ‘What the fuck is that? How did they come up with this?’” he told IndieWire earlier this year. Or, as he told Deadline, “We were overwhelmed by the beauty of the clothes.” Luca Guadagnino, film and fashion’s foremost aesthete.
