Silvia Venturini Fendi studied in London and Italy before her first formal post with the family house in the mid-1980s. From 1987 to 1992 she took on Fendissime, the secondary label.

In 1992, her mother Anna and Karl Lagerfeld brought her into the main studio at Fendi. She seconded Lagerfeld on artistic direction across the next 27 years. Her language sits in the accessory as object, the small oblong shoulder bag with hardware closure, the shearling lining of a coat, leather worked to the softness of cloth.

In 1994, she was appointed head of accessories and menswear. Fendi was still under family control before Prada and LVMH bought 51 percent of the house for $545 million in 1999, with the brand consolidating under LVMH in 2001.

The 1997 Baguette, a short-strap shoulder bag issued in beaded silk, sequins, embroidered velvet and Selleria leather, walked alongside Lagerfeld’s shaved mink and Zucca-lined coats. From 2000, she also took on menswear, and the Peekaboo followed in 2009, a top-handle satchel with a split frame that opened to show its contrasting interior.

While Phoebe Philo at Céline and the post-Helmut Lang generation pulled toward stripped leather goods, Fendi’s accessories pushed the opposite way, ornament as argument. The Fashion Group International award for accessories in 2000 followed the Baguette directly.

After Lagerfeld’s death in 2019, she took over artistic direction of the women’s collections. Kim Jones was appointed artistic director of couture and womenswear in September 2020, leaving her with menswear, accessories and children.

Following Jones’s departure in October 2024, Venturini Fendi headed up both the men’s and women’s departments alongside accessories. She directed the women’s collections through the centennial year, presenting her final runway as creative director in Milan for spring-summer 2026. That collection assembled a saturated, craft-driven lineup of ready-to-wear with embellished editions of the Baguette and the Peekaboo, closing the chapter on house codes she had drawn herself across three decades.

From October 1, 2025 she shifted into the role of Honorary President. Maria Grazia Chiuri, who worked under her in the early 1990s on the same accessories that defined the brand’s global identity, joined as Creative Director of Womenswear and Haute Couture. Venturini Fendi’s tenure sits as the through line between Lagerfeld’s Roman fur house and the next form of the brand.