Viva Italia
Fendi and Roberto Cavalli Move In on London's Sloane Street
London was ruled by Italians last night, with both the Fendi and Cavalli families celebrating their newly opened flagships. Jefferson Hack, Shala Monroque, Amanda Harlech, and Rachel Zoe dropped by Fendi's Sloane Street store to see the house's collaboration with students from the Royal College of Art, while CEO Michael Burke showed Style.com an installation of roses dyed from color extracted from the label's old bags: "Fendi is all about the senses—sight, touch, feel, smell."
Smell? "Yes, if you dip your head in that handbag right now, you'll have an olfactory experience like never before," Burke said. "Call it 'new bag smell.' " What took Fendi so long to hold an event in London? "We were waiting for the right location. I mean, it has taken us five years to move from over there," he gestured across the street. "Over there," of course, meant Fendi's old stomping ground, and now, the new home of Roberto Cavalli.
After the store portion of the evening, Silvia Venturini Fendi hosted a party at the über-elegant Mark's Club in Mayfair for the likes of Camilla Al Fayed, Lady Amanda Harlech, Gareth Pugh, Marc Newson, and Jacquetta Wheeler. As dinner ended, many of them decamped to the Cavalli mega-party at the Battersea Power Station. The bash included music by DJs Dan Williams and Jeremy Healy, a Cirque du Soleil-like performance by The Box with semi-naked women (OK, mostly naked women), a surprise set from Kelis, and a guest list starring Ronnie Wood, Bianca Jagger, Rosario Dawson, and Vidal Sassoon.
As Ozwald Boateng walked by surveying the leopard-skin wallpaper and the feather and leather dresses, he said, "Now that's what I call an Italian job."
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