Carrying Out Redesign

Pietro Beccari (second right), CEO and chairman of Fendi, with Chinese celebrities, including Liu Wen (first right), Liang Yuanwei (fourth right), Guo Jingjing (center), Yang Lan (fourth left) and Tim Yip (second left), who are involved in Fendi's charitable Peekaboo Project.Photos Provided To China Daily

Fendi recently had six Chinese celebrities reinterpret one of the house's best-known products, the Peekaboo bag. Their works are being exhibited in Beijing. Chen Jie reports.

Luxury label Fendi's charitable Peekaboo Project is in Beijing with a unique exhibition at downtown's fashion landmark Taikoo Li Sanlitun. The exhibition runs through June 30.

For the project, Fendi had six Chinese celebrities reinterpret one of the house's most acclaimed bags, the Peekaboo.

Each celebrity had to make two identical bags. One will be kept by Fendi while the other will be auctioned online and the proceeds will be donated to such charity organizations as the China Youth Development Foundation, Community Roots China, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund and China Dunhuang Grottoes Conservation Research Foundation.

The six celebrities discussed their ideas with Fendi's design team and craftspeople. It took a few months to produce the bags.

Model Liu Wen's work is a large classic bag in navy blue leather with 3-D leather flower embroidery. The petals are made using denim.

"To me, Fendi is fun and always surprises - just like the Peekaboo I made," Liu says. "From the outside it is a navy leather bag, but as you open it, you will see the flowers."

The 28-year-old is the first model from Asia to take part in the Victoria's Secret fashion show and the first Asian model on Forbes magazine's annual highest-paid models list.

Former Olympic diving champion Guo Jingjing customized a regular-size Peekaboo bag with inspiration from the sea.

Guo uses a traditional wool-weaving technique.

"Since retiring from the national diving team, I have been taking part in projects to protect the oceans," says Guo.

"Humans cannot live without water. So, I hope my bag will raise people's awareness about ocean protection."

Actress Yang Ying (also known as Angelababy) takes inspiration from her cat. Her piece is a regular-size bag in Cuoio Romano Selleria leather with two cute cat ears on the handle and paw marks on the exterior.

Chinese talk show presenter and media entrepreneur Yang Lan made a white-leather regular-size Peekaboo bag, embellished with 3-D pink and light-blue leather flourishes and orchids created using beads.

Artist Liang Yuanwei's large Peekaboo bag in blue-grey canvas is inspired by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's 1972 documentary Chung Kuo and pictures in her family album.

"My parents grew up in the 1960s and '70s. The fashion at that time was the green army uniform, the blue worker jackets and the canvas bag with aluminum zippers," she says.

She says that her design is about personal memories, freedom and restrictions, and the dialogue between East and West.

Tim Yip, the Chinese art director and designer who won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000, offers a black-and-white bag. It features a color changing LED screen inside and mini crystal oval beads on mink fur on the sides.

"Many of my designs feature elements from both West and East because I believe that Eastern and Western aesthetics can combine perfectly.

"I'm honored to be part of Fendi's Peekaboo Project and really enjoyed the collaboration between Eastern design and Western production techniques," he says.

The exhibition also shows Peekaboo bags designed by such celebrities as Zaha Hadid, Naomie Harries and Adele.

Visitors can also design their own bags on an iPad and choose the colors, patterns and materials. VIP customers can customize bags in a private room on the second floor.

Fendi launched its Peekaboo bag in the spring/summer 2009 season and it soon became its must-have product.

To mark the opening of its London flagship store on New Bond Street in 2014, Fendi invited 10 prominent London women, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Adele, Zaha Hadid and Naomie Harris, to design their own Peekaboo bags. Later, they did the project in Tokyo.

Now, it's looking toward China because the country is a crucial market.

"Chinese customers are getting more sophisticated. It is important for us to bring in more designs and customize them because people expect luxury products - not only in Beijing and Shanghai, but second-tier cities, such as Chengdu," Pietro Beccari, CEO and chairman of Fendi, said the day before the exhibition opened in Beijing on June 10.

For the Peekaboo Project in China, he says: "We try to find top women in their fields. It's also significant that they come from different fields.

"The exhibition is not huge but enough to make a digital splash. The physical exhibition can only have limited visitors, but online, it can reach hundreds of millions of people."

He says that social media influences a lot of people today and China leads the way.

"Chinese customers are young and they are the generation addicted to social media. Social media has a lot of transparency. You cannot hide yourself. You are what you are. Everything is known immediately by millions people," he says.

"It brings out the authenticity, which is important. The customers get to see the things behind the curtain, not only the products in the store. It also offers transparency of price - they can compare it.

"Everything is developing fast thanks to the technology. So, the difficulty is to keep up with innovation."

Contact the writer at chenjie@chinadaily.com.cn