Just when you thought Rome couldn’t get any more magnificent, you turn the corner and see the Trevi fountain being used as a catwalk, with models ‘walking on water’, across the glass runway built into the water basin of the fountain.

Fendi chose Rome, its hometown, to celebrate its 90th anniversary and show their spectacular Autumn 2016 Couture collection, on July 7 2016, with a beautiful runway show that took place against the backdrop of the bling Baroque Trevi Fountain. This was followed by a dinner at the Terrazza del Pincio in Villa Borghese.

90 successful years that started out in the 1926 historic boutique in via del Plebiscito, where the best of the best Made in Italy craftsmanship took place. Traditions the brand work to maintain with their many highly qualified ateliers. This special anniversary was celebrated in Rome together with Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi.

The design concept behind the show began with an early 20^th century edition of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, a Norwegian fairy tale with pictures by the famous children’s book illustrator Kay Nielsen, inspiring Lagerfeld. “This was something from the North, we were making a fur collection, and the pictures were something in between art nouveau and art deco,”

With a fairytale inspired collection, Karl Lagerfeld was moved. “In my wildest imagination, I never thought something like this could exist. To do this on a crystal bridge over the most famous fountain in the world? If that’s not a fairy tale, I don’t know what a fairy tale is.”

The show told the story of a Princess transforming from day to night, the colour palette darkening as she travelled further into the woods. The minute attention to detail was exquisite. Fendi’s extraordinary designs of an insect’s wings illuminated by the Trevi fountains lights, were echoed in a tiny clutch of feathers, and mink petals sewn into the hems of organza dresses.

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Little Red Riding Hood, the Fendi version, basically.

Silvia, the Creative Director of accessories, marvelled: “To walk on water inside the Trevi Fountain? If somebody had told me that could happen, I would have said ‘Impossible!’.”

This is the stuff that dreams are made of.

Images: Fendi Facebook and WiredImage