British designer Lewis Kemmenoe’s reinterpretation of Italian luxury fashion house FENDI’s Peekabo Soft Medium bag was available for sale at the FENDI boutique in Via Montenapoleone 3 in a limited edition of five pieces and displayed at the FENDI Casa store together with the ænigma collection during Milan Design Week 2025.
The Peekaboo Soft Medium bag is made of FENDI leathers cut into a jacket pattern from the FENDI artisans, then affixed together and patchworked to emulate a key motif of Lewis’ work. The hardware carries a further connection, a timber used throughout the aenigma collection forms the internal bar, while silver and brass screws reflect the two prominent metals in the furniture. Upon opening the Peekaboo Soft bag, a hidden wood texture becomes exposed.
Lewis also curated the concept and will take over the 12 windows of the FENDI Casa boutique in Piazza della Scala, exposing the ænigma collection from FENDI and Design Miami/ 2024, for approximately one month. The collection comprises: two chairs, a cabinet, two wall panels, two lamps, a coffee table and three vessels, together with the Peekaboo Soft bag.
The name ænigma is both the Latin word for riddle, or puzzle, but it also has an association in English, in the word enigma, meaning something hard to understand or explain. As the form of the ænigma collection invites moments of analysis into its production process: here box joints are used as a construction technique, but also as an organic vehicle to integrate the FENDI FF motif; a jacket pattern from the fashion house’s atelier is reimagined into timber patchwork – a staple of Lewis’ work; and the bark of pines trees that permeate Rome are cast into brass and aluminium.
A duality in materiality is evident throughout the collection and within individual pieces, where organic matter, be it timber or stone, is offset in relationship to processed materials such as metal. A pair of FENDI Chairs appear in two different materialities, one predominantly brass, one aluminium.
FENDI once more supports limited edition creativity and design, sharing important values with the design world, such as boundless creativity, excellence, quality and a passion for making things by hand.