For the Fendi Resort 2016 collection, the bird of paradise became the fierce ruling motif. It loaned itself to a literal, beautiful print on a silk sundress and a full-skirted smock. Abstracted, it made an angular graphic on a full-skirted, white-collared schoolgirl dress. Printed on the cotton matelassé of a coat or jacket, the bird of paradise was almost an intrecciato weave. And it reproduced strikingly as a mink appliqué on a cashmere top.

“Pleasant aggressivity” was the chord that Karl Lagerfeld wanted to strike, soft but graphic. The bird of paradise went there. Another route was his reinterpretation of denim. There were silk dresses printed to look like denim, and shearling with a denim look, and jackets and blouses woven from silk with the hardy hand of denim.

The collection featured the new dot.com bag, the micro monster bag and the bird-of-paradise high heels which were exposed with a color palette that highlighted ochre, saffron, and army green. The clothing and accessories that borrowed these shades were a subtle counterpoint to the bird-of-paradise extravaganza.