Marc Newson forges landscape of colourful pixels for Fendi

Designer Marc Newson has made his first foray into runway sets, combining blocks of 101 different colours into an undulating terrain to host Fendi's Spring Summer 2026 presentation at Milan Fashion Week.

The set was designed to offer an abstract interpretation of one of the many flower prints featured in the fashion house's latest collection under creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi.

This floral pattern was magnified beyond recognition and translated into a landscape of supersized pixels, used to form both the serpentine runway and the stepped seating that rises around it like sound bars.

Newson said he conceived the set as a testament to the "pure joy derived from colour".

"This concept celebrates the primacy of colour: a preoccupation closely tethered to the image of Fendi," the designer said.

"The set represents a navigable plane of colour, where an inviting tactility and tone give form to an undulating, immersive landscape."

These "pixels" were used to form stepped seating around a serpentine runway

All of the blocks in the set are exactly the same dimensions – save for a few strategically placed steps – to create the impression of uniform pixels.

Finished and upholstered in 101 different shades, they serve to blur the spatial boundary between where the show ends and the audience begins.

The result is a kind of patchwork quilt of colour, designed to pay homage to Fendi's origins as a fur and leather workshop and its enduring emphasis on craft as the fashion house celebrates its 100th birthday this year.

"It has been an honour to be invited to create the set to showcase Silvia Venturini Fendi's much anticipated latest collection," Newson said. "Indeed, the honour felt is one measured through proximity: an association with Fendi's enduring commitment to craftsmanship and innovation."

"I have longed to return to this collaboration ever since Fendi so graciously offered their space in Milan to launch my Ford O2IC Concept Car 25 years ago," he added.

"Then, as now, it was a joyous experience – one which, back in 2000, saw plush Fendi dice playfully offset my vehicle's sleek interior: a fun nod towards the fur workshop origins of the formidable atelier."

Australian-born Newson is perhaps most well-known for his 1990 Lockheed Lounge, which went on to become the world's most expensive design object, and for working with Jony Ive at Apple before the duo went on to found their collaborative studio LoveFrom.

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