Maria Grazia Chiuri makes her debut at Fendi: ‘Less I, more us’

It might have been Maria Grazia Chiuri’s moment – this was, after all, her debut collection for Fendi, one of fashion’s major houses – but the Italian designer was adamant that this opening act was ‘less I, more us’.

So adamant, the message was stamped in alternating Italian and English along the runway, which stretched the length of Fendi’s vast Milanese headquarters on Via Solari earlier this afternoon (the address, which also played host to runway shows by Chiuri’s forebears Silvia Venturini Fendi, Kim Jones and Karl Lagerfeld, has been recently renovated to expand its footprint).

An echo of her statement-marking debut as creative director at Dior in 2016, in which T-shirts were printed with ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ (the title of the 2014 book-length essay by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), the fresh mantra proved her knack for honing a succinct mission statement.

Chiuri said it had emerged from an exploration of Fendi’s collaborative roots: after being founded in Rome by Edoardo Fendi and Adele in 1925, it was under their daughters, the five sisters Alda, Carla, Paola, Franca and Anna Fendi, that the house would find international success. Hiring Karl Lagerfeld in 1965, the sisters continued to hold roles at the house until 1999, when Fendi became part of LVMH; in the last ten years of their tenure, they would work alongside a young Chiuri, who was a designer in the accessories department in her first major fashion role. ‘They were my mentors. They gave me my career. And I felt part of their teamwork,‘ said Chiuri.

In the show, a football scarf printed with ‘5 Sisters’ was a nod to the quintet, whose influence on the house, Chiuri says, often feels overlooked, particularly in comparison to Karl Lagerfeld. ‘I would like people to remember all that they created at Fendi,’ she continued, seeking to topple the idea that to be a successful creative director you must be a monolith.

But Chiuri also used the slogan to encapsulate her approach to menswear and womenswear, which were shown on the runway together (she has not designed menswear since her time at Valentino alongside Pierpaolo Piccioli). ‘Feminine and masculine cease to be categories of opposition and become adjectives used to describe shared qualities,’ she elucidated in the collection notes, envisioning not two separate collections but ‘one wardrobe’.

As such, the collection moved between sinuous, streamlined tailoring and more romantic flourishes, from layers of sheer tulle and lace to plunging V-necklines and bias-cut silk. Meanwhile, fur, which in recent seasons has been largely absent from the Fendi runway (despite the house’s beginnings as a furrier) reappeared here in vivid patchwork coats, part of a new Echo of Love project, whereby clients can bring in their old furs to be remade into new garments (Chiuri hopes that this act of circularity preserves the preciousness of the material). Artistic collaborations with SAGG Napoli and the estate of Mirella Bentivoglio also featured, a nod to her longstanding support of women artists during her time at Dior.

What was perhaps surprising was Chiuri’s use of black, which made up the majority of the collection. Typically, Fendi is known for a more vivid palette, whether poppy hues of yellow, pink and blue, or the richer tones of deep brown and tobacco, which are used in the house’s signature double-F monogram canvas (the double-F emblem also appeared sparingly, and only on handbags).

Backstage, Chiuri explained that these choices emerged from her view that fashion shows are increasingly being used as a means of entertainment, particularly on social media – the more attention-grabbing you can be, the better. In its restraint, this collection was her riposte. ‘I think we must be pragmatic,’ she said. ‘Fashion is not entertainment. Fashion is a job. I am that kind of designer.’