15 Apr 2022
As part of a new celebration of the iconic Peekaboo bag, FENDI has embarked on a collaboration with renowned director and long-time friend of the house, Luca Guadagnino, to create a short film which at once explores the irreverent imagination and powerful femininity of the brand.
“I feel part of FENDI,” reflects Guadagnino. “I am very close friends with FENDI – as a brand for sure but, most importantly, as a friend of people who are pillars of the company. I feel a very deep connection with the brand – and my mother used to wear FENDI back in the 70s and 80s so the logo, the type of materials, the quality and the design of FENDI have always been part of my imagery.”
Depicting Adwoa Aboah as a fashionable incarnation of superwoman, flying above Roman rooftops before determinedly arriving on the steps of FENDI’s Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, the film is imbued with the wit characteristic of the house – while expressly championing the empowered autonomy of the women who wear the brand. “With the DNA of FENDI being Rome, we of course talked about Rome – but instead of being in Rome, being above Rome,” continues Guadagnino. “We had this idea of levity – of the Peekaboo bag, at the centre of the movie, being the magical driver behind Adwoa flying over the ancient city.”
Since its inception in 2008, the Peekaboo has acted as a hallmark expression of exceptional Roman craftsmanship paired with FENDI’s innate sense of humour – its architectural form concealing a soft, supple interior revealed by the bag’s meticulously-engineered construction: “peek-a-boo, I see you.” “One’s bag is full of secrets, and so the idea of the Peekaboo is a bag that can be worn open,” explains Silvia Venturini Fendi. “I think that carrying a Peekaboo says something about a very strong, powerful and empowered person who is not afraid to hide. It has its two compartments - one you can keep close to you and closed, and the other where you can choose to reveal something of yourself to the world.”
That character is precisely embodied by Adwoa Aboah, both on-screen and off. The model, actress and advocate is an exemplar of the FENDI woman – and in the film, supernaturally charged with the power of the Peekaboo, she inhabits a dreamlike fantasy, floating and skipping atop Roman rooftops with a liberated ease, before landing on Earth to determine her own destiny. “The FENDI woman is empowered: she is someone of her own making,” notes Kim Jones. Here, that sentiment – which rests at the very heart of the brand – is celebrated anew.
