The Bloomsbury Movement-Fashion Trend Connection

The Fendi fashion house holds a history of innovative designers and unique fashion inspiration.

The Fendi fashion house holds a history of innovative designers and unique fashion inspiration. Art director Kim Jones has incorporated this rich heritage into her latest collections as well as in a new book titled Fendi Set: From Bloomsbury to Borghese.

Fendi Set: From Bloomsbury to Borghese by Rizzoli International Publications penned by Kim Jones and photographed by renowned photographer Nikolai von Bismarck. Inspired by Jones’ love for Bloomsbury, a literary and artistic movement in England, the new book follows the journey of the Bloomsbury movement and the fashion house Fendi.

The Bloomsbury Movement took place in the early 20th century and included such creative figures as painters Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Roger Fry as well as writers Clive Bell and Virginia Woolf. Jones discovered the movement as a child while living in Lewes, England, near villages frequently influenced by the Bloomsbury movement.

“I was about fourteen years old when I got to know them,” says Jones. As a teenager I visited Lewes with my family and we moved there when I was sixteen. Lewes is a bohemian place, Bloomsbury and Virginia Woolf are often discussed in my group of friends.”

Jones’ first collection, for Spring/Summer, was inspired by his fascination with Bloomsbury and the vision of the movement’s female artists. He drew inspiration from the relationship between Virginia Woolf and her lover Vita Sackville West, emphasizing the collection with a message of strength and developing details from the Bloomsbury team’s trip to Italy. The couple’s love letters featured in the book along with von Bismarck’s photographs are reminiscent of a Victorian photo album.

“Whether I shoot landscapes, interiors or models, I want to maintain a sense of ethereal dreaminess, with sometimes ghostly figures and people floating on the page,” says von Bismarck. “Sometimes the images are dark and moody, textured, layered and sometimes not at all, the images are above all romantic and true to Bloomsbury’s characters, dark, graceful and free. ”

The Fendi Set pays homage to the love affair of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville West and Orlando, the autobiography inspired by the couple. The book explores the shared history of Bloomsbury and Fendi in England and Rome, honoring generations of Fendi women and testing both genders and time.

“I wanted a ghostly atmosphere, a dreamlike quality,” says Jones. ‘Orlando’ is about time travel and I wanted the work to be timeless, drifting between the present, the past and the future.”