We all have a long-lost friend we like to romanticize from a safe distance. The one you swear you’ll reach out to again, just not today. Or this decade. Don’t worry though, at Fendi, it took 37 years. And the reunion succeeded, though not over coffee, this one unfolded on a Milanese runway. The friend, of course, is Maria Grazia Chiuri.
After graduating from Rome’s Istituto Europeo di Design, 1989 rolled around and Fendi happened. The urge stuck, for ten full years, spent deep in the accessories department, Baguette designs and all. In 1999, she moved on to Valentino, same category, this time alongside Pierpaolo Piccioli. Not long after Valentino Garavani stepped aside, the two were promoted to co-creative directors, fashion just loves a slow-burn power shift. By 2016, Christian Dior called and Chiuri became the first woman to take the creative director seat, right after Raf Simons. And then came 2025. All the way back to where she started, Fendi. “I’m here to give back what they [the founding family] gave to me,” she told Vogue.
And it showed. “Less I, more us” was the show’s motto, literally underfoot, stamped across the runway. Chiuri looked like she had a mental list of house upgrades, starting with the obvious. FF stands for Fun Fur, after all. And it was everywhere, coats, jackets, trims, even collars. Though, the good stuff went to the men strutting Fendi’s runway. A nod, maybe, to that tired idea, that men are perfect for womenswear and women somehow can’t touch menswear, flipped on its head. With the new Echo of Love project, clients get to play atelier for a day, reworking their own furs into something new.
Hair aside, Chiuri layered in a streetwear-meets-workwear twist, T-shirts sporting phrases like “rooted but not stuck”, thanks to a collab with artist Sagg Napoli. Think khaki overalls, denim and cargo pants, and parkas. She played with the silhouette, revived the beloved Baguette, and gave the collection a cleanse after years of color. Some of it was business, some romantic, and some pure Chiuri. But the whole thing stayed grounded. And if “grounded” is good at one thing, it’s leaving people either thrilled or bored, no middle ground, ever.
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