There were umbrella hats at Fendi. And yes, these are an actual thing. Invented by someone called Robert W Patten, according to Wikipedia, “while he was prospecting in Mexico. His original hat also included a mosquito net attached to the canopy. Patten moved to Seattle in the 1890s and was dubbed the Umbrella Man”. Think of this then as Umbrella Man 2: The Umbrella Strikes Back. In a weird way, the umbrellas make sense, you don’t want your fur getting wet in the rain, and this being Fendi there was a lot of fur- it even came in the shape of monogrammed bags. There was a flight arrival board, which suggests that this collection may have something to do with travel, an idea that would make sense when paired with the 70’s airline interior colour palette, and the diagonally striped matching shirts and ties, which were just ever so slightly reminiscent of a stewardess’ blouse. Not that these were blouses, nor were they quite shirts either, soundtracked by a cry of ‘doors to manual’. Think of this as a uniform for the business man traveller, back when air travel was still sexy and glamorous. There’s nothing sexy or glamorous about being flung though the sky in a metal tube these days. The Reilly totes though, molto sexy.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
