Fendi Celebrates 10 Years at Design Miami with Fountain Sculpture Series

In celebration of Fendi’s decade of participation at Design Miami, the Italian house presented The Shapes of Water, an installation showing 10 resin fountain designs by Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis.  

After several years in New Zealand, Marcelis joined the Netherlands where she trained at the Design Academy Eindhoven, before opening her studio in Rotterdam where her work was distinguished by many awards, including the BraunPrize 2012.

Her project, The Shapes of Water, explores one of Fendi's iconic elements: water. Marcelis used a palette of materials, colours and shapes that were both contemporary and loaded with the brand’s classic icons.

The 10 fountains, made of moulded resin and glass, are exhibited on travertine pedestals, the same emblematic stone of the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana fountain that was completely restored by Fendi (2015) to house the brand's headquarters and a vast exhibition space. More recently, Fendi’s ties to water and fountains include its efforts towards preserving Rome’s iconic fountains, such as the Fontana di Trevi.

Skilfully using icons of the label, Marcelis incorporated Fendi’s classic ‘double F’ logo created by Karl Lagerfeld in 1965, and also the know-how of Fendi in the treatment of leather and furs. Thus, the specific cutting technique gheronatura, developed in the framework of a pattern imagined in 1972 by Lagerfeld, is embodied by two crossed resin panels, diffusing a prism of yellow and orange to express the poetic evocation of the facades the Eternal City.

The Shapes of Water by Sabine Marcelis for Fendi