Maria Grazia Chiuri’s couture debut for Fendi arrives with a question shaping its foundation, namely what happens to fashion once you strip away the idea that clothes exist to restrain the body? While parts of the industry expected the usual high-volume drama, Chiuri reminded everyone that haute couture isn’t just about giant, theatrical shapes – but also the unseen magic of pure construction. Her answer, delivered across a collection built around desire in its most sensual and unguarded form, feels like an unexpected offering from the Roman brand – especially during such season.
There’s an obvious reference point running through the collection in Jacques De Bascher’s 1977 film ‘Histoire d’Eau,’ commissioned by Karl Lagerfeld for his first Fendi ready-to-wear show and playfully nodding to Pauline Réage’s ‘Histoire d’O.’ Chiuri borrows its sense of innocent freedom and threads it through clothes designed to move instead of contain.
Voluminous, black-and-white chevron and striped caftans glide through the space with an impossible lightness, while kimono-shaped jackets and overcoats rendered in velvet and grain de poudre fall with real fluidity across both womenswear and menswear. To balance this fluidly draped silhouette, Chiuri introduces her new silent signature accessory: a sleek, black velvet-on-lace tie-choker that wraps tightly around the neck, lending a touch of modern subversion to the sheer, diaphanous gowns.
Fendi.
Fendi.
What stands out most is the restraint shown in construction – something Chiuri mastered throughout her time at Dior. Fur becomes a feather through subtraction, with black and white stripes suspended by tulle into something closer to a Venus caught mid-stride, sensual and playful in equal measure. This technique of clever subtraction carries into a soft smoking jacket crafted from panne velvet and structured column dresses traced with sophisticated Art Deco arabesques, capturing elements of the Bauhaus and Vienna Secession movements that influenced Lagerfeld over the decades.
Elsewhere, tulle forms cloaks and capes traced with arabesques that shift between leaf, feather and flower, while leather cuts labyrinth patterns into the white of a double-faced cashmere coat. On men’s shoulders, fur becomes shelter, a kind of wearable hut evoking the shape of a butterfly at rest, while the absolute show-stopper of the night remains a floor-length coat crafted entirely from leftover fur and leather scraps, reassembled by the artisans into a sweeping floral motif.
Fendi.
The palette remains strictly disciplined, hinging on deep blacks and warm parchment – a parchment hue heavily linked to Fendi’s early roots in luxury luggage-making. A standout parchment pantsuit channels a sleek 1970s sophistication, winking at Lagerfeld’s historic admiration for Marlene Dietrich and the emancipated Fendi sisters themselves. Chiuri has leaned on Fendi’s various ateliers as collaborators, treating couture as a living conversation between craft and progress instead of a fixed tradition to be repeated season after season. The star-studded front row – featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Alba and Monica Bellucci – watched the fluid line of garments pass against the museum’s historic backdrops.
Alongside the collection, Fendi revives a piece of its own history. Forty years after the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GNAMC) in Rome first staged ‘Steps Through Work,’ an exhibition marking 20 years of Lagerfeld’s collaboration with the house, Chiuri has chosen to bring it back under the title ‘After. Steps Through Work. Fendi / Karl Lagerfeld 1985.’ Curated by Maria Luisa Frisa, the reactivated show reassembles paper models, preparatory canvases, sample boards, sketches and fur pieces from the original archive, filling gaps with heritage reproductions where originals couldn’t be recovered. The exhibition will be open to the public from July 10 to October 25.
Discover the Autumn/Winter 2026-27 couture collection here.
photography. courtesy of Fendi
words. Gennaro Costanzo
