Fendi Haute Couture FW 17/18

As the curtains parted at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, revealing a set of screens hand-painted with trees, the strains of Claude Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” filled the air. You half expected Vaslav Nijinsky to come bounding out of the wings.

The Russian ballet dancer has been closely associated with the premises since he premiered another of his revolutionary choreographies, “The Rite of Spring,” at the venue in 1913 — famously causing a riot among spectators.

The show notes for Fendi’s fall “haute fourrure” show on Wednesday night did not namecheck Nijinsky, or the painter Léon Bakst, who designed sets and costumes for the Ballets Russes — but their influence was apparent in the collection’s painterly effects and exuberant celebration of nature.