Karl Lagerfeld began working with Fendi in 1972. Here, Accessories Director Silvia Venturini reveals some favourite moments with her creative partner. “When he’d come visit, I’d always dress up,” she says. “Today, it’s still the same.”

Joining the family
I was only four years old when I met Karl. At the time, Fendi was family-owned, so work and family were all mixed. It was in the atelier and when I saw him, I thought he was a painter. He was always sketching and usually had a big package of white paper. To me, his drawings were like cartoons. They had these bright colours and strong silhouettes. When I got older, people would always ask me, ‘What is he like?’ as if he’s this scary man. But when I was a baby, he was always very nice to me. When you know him, you feel you are important to him. We are not the kind of people who are always kissing and hugging and saying, ‘I love you.’ But we both know what we mean to each other.

Karl is coming, Karl is coming
There was always this excitement around him. I could tell when he was about to come to Rome because my mother would get on the phone and ask all of these questions: ‘Is this ready?’ ‘Did you do this?’ ‘Did you do that?’ When he came it was a big event, and it still is to this day. Sometimes he comes once a week, sometimes it’s less. But he always brings these big bags. And he’s always late. If he tells you he’ll be there at 3 p.m., you already know that it’s going to be 8. But he’s always worth the wait.

What to wear
When I was a teenager, I always wanted to surprise him. So when he’d come visit, I’d always dress up a bit more, in a more interesting way, to grab his interest. And today, it’s still the same. I dress up a bit more, but I also want to surprise him with ideas. I still want to feel like he’s curious about what I’m doing. Each time he comes, he has to be surprised.

The creative process
Our collections usually begin with a swatch or an idea. Every time it’s different. Once Karl was on the plane coming to Rome and took these photos from the window of the land below. From his photos of these harvests we built an entire collection. And that’s how we decided to start shaving mink to imitate the movement we saw in these fields. We were the first to do that with fur.

Working together
We’ve never had any kind of disagreements. Even if there is something he doesn’t like, he’s still very nice about it. He’s like, ‘Let’s wait and see.’ Rather than, ‘I don’t like this.’ I understand what he means by his eyes.