Roman Roots: Peter Marino Designs New Madison Ave Fendi Outpost

© Dean Kaufman

Earlier this month, Fendi celebrated the opening of a new New York City location designed by fashion architect of choice, Peter Marino. The Italian luxury fashion house is relocating the flagship outpost from the Fifth Avenue location (also designed by Marino) to 598 Madison Avenue. Marino wanted sought to overhaul the space — previously occupied by Montblanc — inside and out to capture Fendi’s Roman roots.

© Dean Kaufman

Just last summer, Fendi also unveiled a new flagship location in London designed by Gwenaël Nicolas. Perhaps Marino was inspired by Nicolas’ execution of Fendi’s roman origins: Built in Travertine — the Italian monumental material of choice — the façade features vertical soaring pillars set between curvilinear sweeping arches. However, this is just the start of Marino’s interpretation.

The interior is composed of two floors (approximately 4,000 square feet), including plenty of fur, exotic woods, marble, and of course a personal favorite of Marino’s, leather. The ground floor houses women’s accessories, with an entire section dedicated to the new 3Baguette, a new version of the resurrection bag released last year. The center piece of the Baguette bag territory features a shimmering display of hanging miniature Baguettes against a hand-woven fringe-like gold leather backdrop.

© Dean Kaufman

Visitors are led up to the second floor by a meandering Palisander lined and Selleria leather (a personal favorite of Fendi) stitched staircase to ready-to-wear, furs, watches and a VIP room. Marino chose to line the fur room with lacquered parchment, while the ready-to-wear lounge is executed with biomimetic protruding shell-like wall panels