Heritage
A house, in its own words
The story of Fendi begins in Rome in 1925, when Adele Casagrande and Edoardo Fendi established a boutique specializing in fur and leather goods on via del Plebiscito. Adele, trained in her family's leather trade, brought technical expertise alongside Edoardo to build what would become one of Italy's most enduring fashion houses. The business remained family-run through its early decades, and when Edoardo passed away, his five daughters known collectively as the 'five Fendi sisters' took over operations. Under their stewardship, the Maison underwent significant expansion, eventually attracting Karl Lagerfeld as creative director in 1965, a collaboration that would span over five decades and define Fendi's modern aesthetic. The family continued to guide the brand's direction into the 21st century, with third and fourth generations now at the helm. Throughout its history, Roman identity remained central to the Fendi identity, from the language of its advertising to the architecture of its flagship stores. While Fendi's roots were in fur and leather, fragrance entered the brand's portfolio early, with perfumes like Fendi (1985), Fendi Uomo (1988), and Theorema (1998) building a scattered but recognizable olfactory history. The 2024 launch of an integrated fragrance collection marked the first time Fendi approached perfumery as a cohesive long-term creative category rather than intermittent one-offs. Fendi's approach to fragrance centers on the idea of the family archive, treating personal and brand history as the primary creative material. Casa Grande, the flagship of the 2024 collection, exemplifies this directing: the scent takes its name from Adele Fendi's preferred room in the family home and builds its structure around leather as an homage to the Maison's founding craft. The Maison has described its work in perfumery as an extension of its broader mission to create objects meant to be held, worn, and inherited. There is a practical dimension to this philosophy. Fendi draws on its experience as a leather goods house creating accessories designed for daily use. The brand's interest in Roman terroir shows in its sourcing, with ingredients ranging from materials grown in the Roman countryside to rose varieties cultivated in gardens within the city itself. Direction for the collection reportedly fell to Loïc Prigent, bringing a documentary sensibility to how the brand communicates its fragrance story. The underlying principle appears to be coherence between story and sensation, where each fragrance connects back to something specific in the Fendi experience rather than to generic luxury associations.