The gleaming travertine façade of Rome’s Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana bears an engraved tribute to the people of Italy: “A nation of poets, of artists, of heroes, of saints, of thinkers, of scientists, of navigators, of travelers.”
Apart from the distinction of sainthood (the pope’s alone to bestow), that litany of archetypes could describe the denizens of the palazzo’s current owner, Fendi. Indeed, the ascent of the house to the pinnacle of global luxury took generations of artists, thinkers, navigators, and travelers of fashion’s often thorny turf, and, if one considers the advanced Fendi technology, even scientists of a sort.
Fendi’s 2015 acquisition of the building, a relic of Italy’s fascist past, was a bold move. But audacity is a defining characteristic of the 100-year-old house. With an arched grandeur…
