Milan Fashion Week: At Fendi, English countryside chic by way of the art studio

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After years in the ready-to-wear doldrums, the Fendi collection keeps getting better and better.

For fall, the look was English countryside by way of the art studio. That meant relaxed, smock-like coats with colorful piping, worn with ankle-length pants, all in autumnal shades of rust, moss and mustard.

Sheer plaid blouses and little black dresses came with detachable jabots with wool ruffles that resembled paper cutouts. There were also patchwork furs, colorblocked croc coats and a great inside-out shearling.

For cocktail hour, off-the-shoulder little black dresses came with sheer, blousy, sparkly sleeves.

Accessories included quirky headbands, block-heeled shoes, colored stockings and structured, high-polished calf bags with top handles.

This was a collection full of graphic lines and shapes, as if designers Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Fendi had drawn it with pen on paper. Even the models’ hair was given an artists’ touch -- their untidy updos were tinged with bright color.

-- Booth Moore in Milan, Italy

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