September 8, 2026 |
Your first house? Every designer remembers theirs. It was Fendi that forged Maria Grazia Chiuri. She joined at the age of 24, fresh out of Milan’s Istituto Europeo di Design, and began designing accessories for the Roman maison. Chiuri entered a world steeped in craft and bristling with big personalities. The year was 1989. Karl Lagerfeld had been designing Fendi ready-to-wear since 1965 and all five Fendi sisters – Paola, Anna, Franca, Carla and Alda – were still running the family firm, imbuing it with a powerful female energy. Thirty-seven years later, Chiuri has returned, bringing her own feminine, feminist energy back to the house where her story started.
The designer has a new motto to inform her Fendi homecoming: “Less I, More Us”. It is inspired by the collective culture at the house, which was powered by the Fendi sisters before it became part of LVMH in 2001. Chiuri worked with all of the sisters as well as Silvia Venturini Fendi, with whom she created the famed baguette bag in 1997. In a preview of her debut ready-to-wear collection, she described the sisters as “great visionaries” for having the foresight to work with Karl Lagerfeld so early on and bring their artisanal family brand to a global stage. She described the atmosphere of Fendi back then as a “sorority” and said working with them was a “really a big school, not only for me, for many designers. They taught me to work in a team, to collaborate, to be innovative while maintaining tradition. Those are the elements of our work here.”
She left Fendi in 1999, heading to Valentino with Pierpaolo Piccioli, and then to Dior. Returning to the house where her career began, Chiuri spoke of seeing Fendi, “with fresh eyes, but also through my recollections”. If her nine years as artistic director of Dior womenswear and couture were informed by 1950s silhouettes, her new Fendi era looks to the geometric lines of the jazz age and the art deco roots of the house, founded in 1925. Add to that her deep understanding of Italian craft and a sense of pragmatism that has been the hallmark of her creative life.
Her Fendi debut focused on refined and tailored silhouettes that work on any gender. The first look – a silk shirt dress and blazer, all in black – signalled her intention to strip it back to elegant looks in a sombre, monochromatic palette. Fendi is rooted in modernism, and also, via Lagerfeld’s influence, the Viennese Secession – the reason, she says, that Fendi is “so clean”. Chiuri paid tribute with striking geometric detailing on her lace flapper dresses. Her biggest nod to Lagerfeld came with the detached white cotton collars worn with many looks.
More than 100 years after it was founded, Chiuri is moving Fendi forward. Her most significant innovation was showing masculine/feminine versions of many looks, calling it “a shared wardrobe”. She told WWD that the approach came from a streamlining of her practice to work with the same team on men’s and women’s. “We do a coat, we do a jacket, we do pants. We change the size, but it’s the same,” said the designer, who often wears her husband’s coats.
Chiuri is a world-builder and aims to create an expansive Fendi wardrobe. Beyond the sleek tailoring, there was a little bit of everything on her debut catwalk in Milan, from zip-up flight suits and joggers to bohemian embroidered gilets worn with denim board shorts. Alongside that there were spectacular moments of craft including coats and jackets made in handcrafted leather and lace.
Bags are always a big story at this house. Chiuri put her stamp on Fendi’s icons with heavily embellished baguettes and perforated shoppers, which bear her refreshed, more geometric version of the Fendi logo. She worked with graphic artist Leonardo Sonnoli to “renovate” the house’s double-F logo and font – thinking of it as more of a signature than a splashed-all-over print.
Her Dior years included a remarkable series of collaborations with female artists. Now, she’s continuing that tradition at Fendi by working with the estate of Italian sculptor and poet Mirella Bentivoglio on jewellery and graphic tees, while fluffy football scarves come with phrases (“Rooted but not stuck”) by Italian artist Sagg Napoli. Fendi’s Chiuri era has begun.
Issue 77 of 10 Magazine – FUTURE, LEGACY, HERITAGE – is on newsstands September 18. Pre-order your copy here.
FENDI: COMING HOME
Photographer DANIEL RIERA
Fashion Editor TOBY GRIMDITCH
Text CLAUDIA CROFT
Models SONG AH WOO at Ford Models and ALI DANIYAROV at Viva Model Management
Hair WERNER AMORT at Julian Watson Agency using BALMAIN Hair
Make-up CAMILLE SIGURET at Wise & Talented
Photographer’s assistant VIKTOR JELINEK
Fashion assistants ALISA DATSENKO and GEORGIA EDWARDS
Hair assistant AIMERIC AMIOT
Casting CLARE RHODES at Casting By Us
Production MARISSA LEITMAN at TheLink Mgmt and SONYA MAZURYK
Clothing and accessories throughout FENDI AW26
